MTV Review: Primavera Sound 2014

According to Primavera Sound’s website FAQs you can enjoy Barcelona’s 3-day festival ONE HUNDRED PERCENT simply by dressing appropriately.

FAQ: What are the things which I need to bring with me in order to enjoy the festival 100%?

A: Comfortable footwear, a hat, baseball cap or something similar to protect yourself from the sun, a jacket or jumper for the nights, ear plugs and a raincoat in case of rain.

Forewarned, most festival-goers took none of the advice. NONE! Yet they still waved palm trees in the air like they just didn’t care. Here are 10 reasons why Primavera Sound is one of the best music festivals out there.

1. THE LINE-UP
Primavera has always been revered by music lovers for its strong and unique billings. This year’s heartbreaking clashes were like choosing between a rock and a hard place... if they were both awesome! Hola Arcade Fire, Nine Inch Nails, Queens of the Stone Age, Metronomy and Mogwai. If you had a ‘Where Is My Mind?” moment during Pixies and forgot they were playing (as I did), never you mind, there were other options. Those who opted for watching The War on Drugs didn’t care that Kim Deal wasn’t with Joey Santiago and co. as they launched into ‘Surfer Rosa, Bone Machine’. When singer WOD’s Adam Granduceil urged the crowd to ‘Come to the City’, everyone was just glad they had.

2. THE WEATHER
So, it p*ssed it down during John Grant’s entire set, but The Greatest MF in the world played on in torrential rain, complete with waterlogged stage, dripping beard, beanie and sunnies. (He’s had worse problems.) Staying soggy in the concrete fairground until the end of the almighty storm was worth it, despite the ponchoed trustafarians splish-splashing in giant puddles like broken-winged fairies. No sooner had the Denver-based Dalston-lover finished than an Instagram-hungry double rainbow arched over Parc del Forum. Bienvenidos Barcelona sunshine, business as usual.

3. GIRLS RUN THE WORLD
New pastime: watching bearded, inked rockers in leather jackets getting their freak on to hot chicks. Dudes raised devil horns whilst ‘Falling’ love with HAIM’s anthemic hooks, Warpaint’s jamming cover of Bowie’s ‘Ashes to Ashes’ spawned furious nods of acknowledgement, and I swear I saw some guy moshing to Sharon ‘Queen of Anticlimactic’ Van Etten’s melancholy masterclass. As for St. Vincent’s Annie Clark’s writhing and twisting? Damn cool.

4. NOSTALGIA
Featuring reunions from shoegaze greats Slowdive and recently-reformed Neutral Milk Hotel, it got emosh. Add Pixies, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Slint and Shellac and you’ve got a seriously evocative line-up. Plus an impeccable Television played the entire of classic album ‘Marquee Moon’ live, transporting everyone to 1977 whether born then or not.

5. MUCHOS GEETAR SOLOS AND ONE BASSFACE
Este Haim’s gurning needs no more press and you can tell from the line-up just how much guitar featured in Primavera Sound. However the revelation was Darkside with their Dire Straits-ish blues riffs, when they didn’t go too Chris Isaac.

6. IT’S NOT ALL INDIE SCHMINDIE
You could also jump around to rock, dance and hip-hop. QOTSA were as funky as Josh Homme’s hip thrusts, NIИ were industrially loopy from the ‘Year Zero’ get go and Kendrick Lamar pumped up the crowd with his huge swagger, paving the way for the fire to burn later as Disclosure headlined the main stage in the wee hours - whilst indie kids caught zeds in their beds.

7. PROPS TO THE PROPS
Bamboo, wheatsheafs and palm trees. If it was yank-out-able, it was fair game as a personal meeting point marker within the 70,000-strong crowd – if you hadn’t brought an inflatable sheep. Winning prop prize has to go to SBTRKT’s onstage giant dragon/ woman/ mask/ thing. (Sorry, it was late).

8. BEST LIVE BAND EVER
No, not Future Islands, although lead growler Samuel threw some awesome shapes. Josh Homme got it right when he namechecked Arcade Fire, saying it was a “****king good day of music." Their 21-song set opened on ‘Reflecktor' and included Régine walking into the crowd, papier-mache heads and an insane light show finale.

9. RAY BAN STAGE
This sunken amphitheatre is just joyous. Framed by solar panels, fairy-lit aisles, concrete seating and a silent sea, Metronomy were cute as hell, Seun Kuti brought African grooves to Spain, Chromeo injected infectious electrofunk and fancy footwork, Jagwar Ma made a euphoric, shirtless crowd mirror their moves at 3am, and sunburnt fans climbed palm trees to Laurent Garnier until the sun came up to fry them again.

10. DJ LOL
Ok, he’s actually called DJ Coco, but he sure provided a lot of LOLs by playing a loco closing set that included Journey, The Rapture, Lykke Li and Kelly Clarkson as the sun rose over the Catalan capital. As festival-goers stormed the stage around 6am, confetti and streamers decorated an ADD crowd having 3-minute intervals of stupidity, “I didn’t know Blur were playing?”… Erm, IT’S. A. DJ!

By Lisa Goldapple