iMpRessioNs fRoM pRiMaveRa SouND 2011

... and an unexpected ending

 

5 days, 14 stages, more than 200 artists, more than 250 concerts, more than 100.000 people!

These are the numbers but nothing can describe the experience!

Note: I'm not a music maker, critic or producer, so I wrote this post as a humble festival attendant :)

Event Organization

I can't imagine how much planning and coordination is needed to organize such an event and overall I think they did pretty well. There were problems of course, but not that important to spoil the mood.

I'd note the following:

  • Event venues

Poble Espanyol, totally fit for concerts, reminded me of Athens' Technopolis. Great sound quality and all the beauty of Spanish architecture around made the experience incomparable!

Parc del Forum. Sea breeze, sand, trees and all the things you can relate to Springtime aka Primavera! Big enough to host all these people and different stages. The stages were far enough to avoid interference of concurrent shows and close enough to move from one to the other on time. Also, surprising clean toilets, despite the amount of people.

  • Long queues

Both in Poble Espanyol and Parc del Forum, the audience suffered long queues to exchange their tickets for the bracelets. However, that was not the case for those who had chosen to buy their tickets through PayPal.

  • Portal and charge system failure

Apart from the bracelet, everybody received an access card that was supposed to be used for accessing the festival venues, as well as buying drinks during the concerts. In order to charge money on your card, you were supposed to login to the website portal and connect your credit card to this access card. Alternatively, you could charge money in the card at several kiosks around the festival area. That worked well during the first day at Poble Espanyol, but the next day the portal was down all day long and no purchases could be done with the card at the festival. That was kind of frustrating, but soon enough, special stands were established to get back the money charged in the cards. Traditional cash-only transactions from then on!

  • Food and Drinks

Variety of food choices, especially in Parc del Forum. Hot dogs, crepes, sandwiches, chinese, hamburgers, pasta, salads, vegetarian. Beers and cocktails. Could have been cheaper though.

 

What I saw, What I liked and What I didn't

Day 1, Wednesday May 25th, Poble Espanyol

Echo & The Bunnymen: They played intensively, they played lively and the crowd loved them. They avoided slow songs and played what people knew and like. I hadn't seen them before and they're not my style. But I can say they gave a great show and I respect them.

Caribou: Overpassed every expectation I had. Excellent performer, him and also the rest of his "crew". Loved their way of playing several songs without a pause. The crowd was excited and dancing non-stop! The first great show of the festival and surely a show to remember. The next morning, waiting for the bus to go to the university, I realised I was dancing alone in the bus stop in the rythm of "Sun" that wouldn't leave my mind...

Day 2, Thursday May 26th, Parc del Forum

Grinderman: Huge Nick Cave, huge show, huge performance! Magic voice. Passion, anger, intensity. Cave is a man to worship and the crowd did exactly that. Getting off the stage often to touch his audience and be touched, screaming with rage, then singing gently like the man of your dreams. Nick Cave I bow to you! 

Interpol: I'm not a fan but I like a few songs and Interpol is considered a "must-see" band by many people, so I decided to ignore Nick Cave's suggestion (who kept saying during his show that we have to go see Suicide next) and move to Llevant. I think I managed to stay about 20 minutes. Too formal, too fake, too slow, too predefined, if you know what I mean. Everything was in place and total order. There was no feeling of freedom on stage. It seemed like they had even rehearsed their face expressions. However, there were people that loved the show. As for me, I decided to go to Suicide for the remaining time, but Caribou was playing closer and grabbed my attention once more!

The Flaming Lips: What a show! "Come on! Come on! Come on!", excellent perfomer Wayne calling at the crowd every now and then. Maybe it was too much of a show than a concert. But it was absolutely one of the highlights of the festival.

Suuns: I guess I went because I was around at that moment. I can't even remember what they were playing. Totally boring.

 

Day 3, Friday May 27th, Parc del Forum

Explosions In The Sky: "Somos explosiones en el cielo" they said and the flight took off. The whole concert was a trip. Pure Magic. Great artists, thanked the audience of Barcelona for inviting them once again and you could feel they meant it. You could feel they were happy to be here. You could see they felt the music and that feeling was spreading in the air. My favourite of the festival.

Pulp: "Do you remember the first time?" First time I saw Pulp and I will certainly remember it! The most anticipated concert of the festival by many. They gave it all. Played what you were expecting them to play, interacted with the people. They made me dance even right after the "darkness" of Explosions and they made me admire. I know I saw a historic concert but they didn't win my heart. I'm sorry. 

Del Rey: What can I say. Astonished. Amazing double drum set, amazing rythm, amazing audience. These guys have talent and it's obvious! The only show I attended that the crowd asked for "otra"! And they didn't let us down. They returned on stage and played for 15 more minutes! They have a place in my heart :)

 

Day 4, Saturday May 28th, Parc del Forum

Einstürzende Neubauten: I didn't know them and was not interested in any other show at that moment. They described them to me as "minimalistic". Not sure what that means, but they caught my attention. Typically German but not something you've seen before. I'd describe them as "psycho". They convinced me. I will listen to them.

PJ Harvey: I know a lot of people will hate me but the impression I have in my mind is a common woman in white dress singing without passion. Disappointed.

Mogwai: One of my favourite bands and a show that I anticipated a lot. And they didn't let me down :) Athough, saying "gracias, thank you very much", that and nothing more, after every single song, was kind of annoying I must admit.

The Black Angels: I arrived 10 min before the end of Odd Future concert which was right before, to find around 30 people on stage dancing, jumping, singing! When the Black Angels came on stage, they realised there were sound problems. Probably because of the previous mess. The problem was solved after about half an hour and the Black Angels appeared on stage to overcome every expectation of their impatient audience! The next day everybody was speaking about their performance. I'd just like to point out that the sound quality for those standing on the right side of the stage was really inferior to the rest of the area. That was most probably a permanent problem of the Pitchfork stage, located right next to the sea without any coverage on the right side of the stage.

DJ Coco: Who's that, right? He played 80s, he played 90s and the audience loved him. Actually it was like being in a typical disco of Barcelona. Nothing impressive but exactly what you need to end the party!

 

Day 5, Sunday May 29th, Apolo

...or at least that was the plan. Go to Apolo to see The Black Angels once again. But the queue was long and we decided to have a mojito first, so we headed for the closest square, the one in Raval.

The bar was empty. We ordered mojitos and waited. I knew there was live flamenco show perfomed by locals, but I couldn't imagine what was about to follow.

Two guys with their guitars appeared and started playing. People started filling the bar. Some minutes later a blonde guy (totally not Spanish) was passing outside. He heard the music and got in. He was holding a trumpet. It was obvious that he didn't know the rest of the people playing. He sat down, felt the rythm and joined them. Then I noticed an old man with grey long beard. He left his drink and left for a while. He came back with a pair of bongos and joined, too. After a while the trumpets became two, a girl started dancing, everybody clapping their hands.

This is a small video I managed to record:

(download)

 

As you may imagine, we never arrived at Apolo on time for The Black Angels.

But this was one of the best performances I saw these days

and one more reason to fall in love with Barcelona :)

V.