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Primavera Sound 2015: Day 4

Saturday, May 30th

Swans, Torres, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, The Strokes, Underworld, Caribou, DJ Coco

Barcelona, Spain

This festival was a marathon. Between adjusting to the time change, the long hours standing on exclusively concrete surfaces, the intense availability of substances (legal or not) that everyone is imbibing in, and the language barrier, my first year at Primavera Sound was a learning curve.

We began our final day by attending the Swans show being held at the Auditori Rockdelux, a theatre venue on the Primavera site. We weren’t sure what the venue capacity was like, although once we got in, we were shocked to find not only an auditorium that could probably hold upwards of 2500 people, but that the venue was absolutely packed. This was a sharp contrast from Swans attendance at Coachella this year, a late night set with a handful of dedicated fans, but easily under 500 in attendance.

Swans have a very distinct brand of music. It’s certainly not metal, it’s a unique form of experimental rock, written, performed, and created by Michael Gira, who has assembled a band of both performers from Swans early days (dating back to the 80's) and new players, like auxiallry percussionist and fan-favorite Thor Harris. The chemistry between the band members is an incredible force to witness alone, as the music is less like songs and more like symphonic movements, with many pieces stretching to around 20 minutes or more.

Mostly working with their 2014 album “To Be Kind” (which has been hailed as the best of their career), as well as new cuts and a track from 2012's “The Seer”, the band tears down the recorded studio versions, only to build them back up again, making music that sounds familiar to those who know the album, but entirely unique to the performance at hand. Since their set at Coachella was shorter (the band was scheduled to play for three hours this weekend), and outdoors, the walls of noise they created in this auditorium literally shook the walls. The crowd was eating it up, and after each piece concluded (in perfect sync, and often when you’d least expect it), they gave a standing ovation. Michael Gira was in a great mood, the band were obviously thrilled at the audience turnout, and seemed like they were trying to see just how far they could go.

The set concluded with a medley of “Bring The Sun” and a new song that, according to setlists, has been dubbed “Black Hole Man”. “Bring The Sun” is a stark, stomping roar of noise, and just when you’re not sure if their amps can go any louder, the band drops the sound down to a driving, krautrock-influenced jam, that (just like at Coachella) immediately takes the audience by surprise, because… they all start dancing. Yes. Swans have made a track that makes audiences shuffle their feet. Michael Gira steps back from the mic and conducts the chaos, swirling his hands around, and stepping forward to spit venomous lines with the phrase “…and you are a liar”, before the band makes a rising roar of sonic eviseraction that sounds like a jet taking off, then dropping out to let the bass plod its driving tone along again, over and over they repeat this, until the song ends as thrilling as it started. It’s a painfully catchy tune, and again, it makes audiences move. If it doesn’t end up on their new album (the sessions of which begin in September of this year), I’ll be writing Michael Gira a letter in protest.

Swans didn’t play for three hours. I don’t know why, but I feel like their shows are so meticulously orchestrated, so they had their setlist, and that was what they were going to play. Not one person left that theatre feeling slighted, because Swans at Primavera Sound 2015 was incredible.

This wasn’t even the best thing we saw on Saturday.

After decompressing from Swans, we took in the beautiful waterfront view, listening to the eclectic performance from Tori Amos on one side, and the abhorrent nonsense that is Sleaford Mods from another. We were waiting for the late-addition set on the Pitchfork Stage by Mackenzie Scott, better known as Torres.

When we got near the stage, I looked around and realized that all that was awaiting Torres out there was one amp, a mic, and a guitar. I knew that her earlier performances were solo, but I’m familiar with her excellent 2015 album “Sprinter”, and assumed she’d have brought the backing band with her. This wasn’t the case, and so I was skeptical about how Ms. Scott would be able to A) top the noise from Sleaford Mods set around the corner, and B) pack the weight of the expertly crafted work on her new album. I was there, apparently, to be proven wrong.

Torres opened her set, emerging on stage looking shy and grateful for who’d shown up, with a cut from her first record. The song, “Honey”, is an incredible work, but as I watched her face contort, expressing the pain behind the lyrical content, I realized I was done for. It went from “Wow, this is very emotional.” to “Gosh, she might make me cry.” to “I’m going to cry.” to “Well, I’ve been crying for a while now.”. There aren’t many performers who can make that happen so quickly, especially with a song that doesn’t have a specific meaning or memory tied to it for me, but I wasn’t the only one in the crowd moved by her. Her set was some of the most expressive and honest music we saw all weekend, peppered with banter that only comes from an emerging, genuine talent. Acknowledging her lack of a backing band, she swore she’d bring one next time, but at the beginning of her set, she commented “Something over there’s being really loud… I’m going to try and be a little louder.” Fuck Sleaford Mods, Torres was the set to see. She is a talent to watch, and the trifecta of powerful, brilliant, female-centric acts we caught this weekend (Patti Smith, Sleater-Kinney, Torres) is an exciting thing to take notice of.

We walked around the corner from a grand staircase, dividing the location of the Pitchfork Stage from the Adidas Originals stage, to see Unknown Mortal Orchestra. The Adidas Stage is located right on the corner of the pier, with water and yachts behind about two thirds of it, so it’s a picturesque setting to say the least, but it’s easily the smallest and least accommodating area out of the stages we visited at Prima. The set was absolutely packed, and as if that wasn’t enough of a struggle, this stage had a truly horrible sound mix. Perhaps facing the speakers out to the vast unending blue of the Atlantic Ocean isn’t ideal, because the entire set felt quiet, and incredibly high pitched. The band were in good form, with a nice mix of tracks from their previous albums and brand new record “Multi-Love”, but the Eurochatter returned at a horribly inopportune time, and this set became more about enjoying a drink than really taking in the music.

Speaking of drinks… know what makes Heineken taste infinitely better? Red Bull. Know how many Red Bull/Heineken’s it takes to make yourself go absolutely nuts? Well… we lost count.

I’d speculated earlier, based on anecdotal evidence about The Black Keys, and being present for Ride, that The Strokes set would be one of the biggest attendances of the weekend, and as we made our way to the Primavera Main Stage, that notion I had turned out to be all too real. The crowd was massive, and the band actually ended up going on late. They sounded excellent, airing cuts from their entire discogprahy, and opening with under appreciated “Angles” track “Machu Picchu”. In typical Strokes fashion, Julian Casablancas had little to say, but I’m familiar with their routine enough to not expect something different. However, having seen the band before, and the main stage being so loud, with screens halfway through the crowd reaching even farther back, we made an executive decision.

The Heineken Stage, where we saw James Blake, Patti Smith, and Sleater-Kinney, faces opposite the Primavera Stage. By walking around the far side, we could not only see The Strokes from the mid-crowd screen, but also hear them perfectly… and wait on the bar for my most anticipated set of the festival: Underworld, performing my favorite dance record of all time, “dubnobasswithmyheadman” in full. This was the right decison.

We ended up making a new friend, who regaled us with tales of the actual 1989 “Summer of Love” in the UK, the basis for the movie Trainspotting (one of my favorites) and the entire scene that bore Underworld, Primal Scream, Moby, countless others, and eventually, Britpop. When the lights went down on the stage, and Rick Smith and Karl Hyde walked out onstage, I was in utter disbelief about what I was about to see: my most anticpated set of the festival, from a spot that literally could not be better. And then the music started.

The Heineken Stage is the second largest at the festival, and has housed some massive acts. Underworld’s sound was so massive, the bass throbbing was physically pushing me back. I own a pair of high quality concert-specific ear plugs (got those at Coachella for Swans, thank goodness), and they allowed me to live the music off “dubnobass” at its purest form: as loud as possible, driven by pulsing, never-ending rythym. When “Dark and Long” kicked off, I thought I was going to fall over, and while Karl’s vocals soared over the beat, the bass was the heart of the concert, the heart of the album, it was like living inside the musics beating chest. I don’t know if I’ve ever danced and lost my mind at a show the way I did that night, and I don’t know if I ever will again. “Spoonman”, “Dirty Epic”, freakin’ “Cowgirl”, the album showed almost every dance act at Primavera just where they came from, it was a masterclass.

The band aired popular one-off single “Rez” after completing the album, and it looked like the show might have been over. I was worried. As much as all the tracks on the album mean to me, undoubtedly, Underworld’s most popular song (thanks to Trainspotting) is the anthem “Born Slippy (Nuxx)”. I needed to hear it. When Karl Hyde strutted back out on stage and declared “There’s just one more song we feel we have to play. It’s probably the happiest song about starving and living destitute in London. And we’d like to do it for you.”, I knew I was about to see a musical nirvana. This was, for me, like seeing McCartney at Coachella in 2009 performing “Hey Jude”, seeing U2 at the closing date of the 360 tour in 2011 doing “With Or Without You”, or jumping with a crowd of 70,000 screaming “Seven Nation Army” at the end of Jack White’s marathon set at Bonnaroo in 2014. This was defining, life affirming, and Underworld at Primavera was one of the greatest shows of my lifetime, and one of the happiest moments of my life.

We were trying to process what we’d just witnessed, and made our way over to the RayBan stage, located at the bottom of a large staircase, an amphitheatre style setup. This was where we’d unsuccessfully tried to catch Ratatat the night before, and it was even worse this time for the set by Caribou. We could still hear the music, and because it’s Dan Snaith and his crack band, it was flawless, but we couldn’t see a damn thing, except flashing lights, and thousands of people. Our group are much bigger Caribou fans than Ratatat ones, so we remained up top, and listened and danced to the rest of the show, and the band closed with a massive extended jam of “Sun”, as is their current custom at festivals.

Technically, that was a wrap on what we were here for. We went back to the food vendor area, for benches and beer, and delicious noodle stir frys. Eventually, the packed Rayban stage played host to DJ Coco, who was merely there to mix some tunes and keep the dance party going well in to sunrise. Fireworks were lit, and once we realized we could see the sun come up over this beautiful setting, we couldn’t resist. Red Bull Beers and a great track here and there by the DJ (when is Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” a bad idea?) kept us going, and eventually (like sweet delicious Heineken), the garbage and the Eurochatter, and the chaos of 100,000 people all there to go crazy fades away, and you realize you’re enjoying yourself all over again in a way you didn’t think you could.

But seriously, if anyone offers me a Heineken in the next six months, I might throw up.

Will I do Primavera Sound again? I’d like to. The time I’ve spent in Barcelona has been incredible, but a sharp learning curve. I know there’s ways to maximize my experience at Prima even more than I already did, but this festival has hosted some of the most revered and treasured acts and sets of the last decade and a half. I try not to go to a festival simply because I had a good time there, because for me, the music is what I’m there for. I travel to see bands, I travel to take in music away from home, for once in a lifetime experiences. If Primavera Sound has a lineup that’s anything like their last 15 in 2016, I’d be a fool to say no.

Maybe I should just move to Europe.

BANDS SEEN: 7

BANDS SEEN AT PRIMAVERA SOUND 2015: 22

HEINKEN DRANK AT PRIMAVERA SOUND 2015: 400 LITRES