When the line-up was announced for Primavera in early 2013, I screamed as if someone told me Harry Styles would be there, who would have thought the cheeky little pube-head would have been spotted alongside the likes of J Mascis and Damian from Fucked Up, sifting his way through the eclectic mix of Spanish, French, Dutch, American, British and just about every other nationality of person you can think of.
For one reason or another I didn’t actually land in Barcelona until 5pm on the opening day of the festival, so from the airport there was a mad dash to drop bags at the hotel room and then hop on a bus to the Parc Del Forum in time to see Metz. In the end I only managed to see the last 5 minutes of their set so can’t really give a proper review, but they sounded loud and tight as a unit, setting the tone for an insane weekend ahead. From Metz I made my way down to the Primavera stage to see the first of many legendary bands of the weekend, Dinosaur Jr. who were eternally battling with the shitty volume on the Primavera stage. The setlist consisted of new tracks, oldies, a single from J Mascis and Lou Barlow’s first band – Deep Wound, a cover of The Cure’s classic ‘Just Like Heaven’ and even a guest appearance from Damian of Fucked Up fame. Next up was Killer Mike back at the Pitchfork stage who had seen his crowd grow and grow throughout, partly due to how refreshing those in attendance thought it was to see a rapper as humble as Killer Mike, making constant references to how happy he was to be in Barcelona and how much he loved his wife (who was sat, side of stage texting for the majority of it) to a crowd of ‘awwws’ coming straight back at him. I ended Thursday night at the ATP stage to see Hot Snakes and Death Grips who were both My Bloody Valentine level of loud, despite the Primavera stage being the worst I have come across at a festival for sound, having the likes of Death Grips on the ATP stage and Phoenix just a few feet away on the Heineken stage without any hint of a Dance/Pop/Punk/Hip-Hop hybrid is commendable, I hope other festival organisers were in attendance and taking notes.
Friday got off to a strange start for me. Queuing up to get in I was suddenly overwhelmed with the sound of panting behind me, fearing for my life I 
turned around to see a man in a Jesus and Mary Chain T-shirt, he asked me who I was going to see and when I replied that I was just going to have a look around the record stalls for a bit, he asked if he could cut in front of me. I’m writing about this man in case he reads this, shout out to you for waiting 6 and a half hours at the barrier of a stage that clears out after every performance just so you could get a good view of JAMC. I took a walk down to the auditorium of the museum to check out where Daniel Johnston would be playing, I got there early enough to catch the act on before him, Mulatu Astatke who I can safely say are a national treasure of Spain, the Spanish are strange. Anyone who doesn’t mind the combination of saxophone, violin and bongo drums you should probably be wary of. Due to sitting through what sounded like the soundtrack to the computer game ‘The Sims’ for an hour, I managed to get third row seats to see Daniel Johnston, who was charming and in good spirits, turning around and asking his band ‘hey what’s going on?’ when expecting them to join in on an acapella. It’s probably stating the obvious here but expect the unexpected with a Daniel Johnston show. The Breeders (Yay) were the next band on, at the Primavera stage (Boo) with Kim Deal proving she’s not only one of the best bass players to walk the earth but she also makes a bloody good front-woman, the band’s smiles said it all, performing Last Splash in its entirety clearly brings back some great old memories for the band and fans alike and some great new memories for those not fortune enough to see them first time around. The Jesus and Mary Chain should take tips from The Breeders, looking moody and bored just isn’t as cute without the big black hair. Performance wise I am still undecided, sounding like a shittier Primal Scream at times and like the incredible band they once were at others. ‘Just like Honey’ will be a defining festival moment at anywhere they choose to play and my night was made when the camera cut to the panting man singing his little heart out, I’m glad he didn’t go for a wee at any point in the day and lose his spot.
Merchandise and King Tuff kicked off the Saturday by performing in a neighbouring park to confused looks of those on a casual Saturday stroll. King Tuff especially had the crowd moving and drew a big crowd. The first band of the day at the actual Parc Del Forum for me was Deerhunter, who stepped in last minute to replace Band of Horses, with singer Bradford Cox claiming ‘We’re Band of Horses 2: The Reckoning.’ tracks from new album Monomania stand up well against their criminally underrated back catalogue. The only thing that could have possibly ruined seeing Wu-Tang Clan would be for them to be put on the Primavera stage and for them to be missing key members such as Method Man and Raekwon due to “not making it through airport security” both of these occurred, but it wasn’t THAT bad, other than the sound being so quiet that when the DJ dropped the music for the audience to sing back, my clear Yorkshire accent sounded pretty stupid yelling ‘Dollar Dollar bill y’all!’
Now, I have seen Liars a few times and clearly remember them being heavy and at times hypnotic, I haven’t listened to their new album WIXIW and can only now assume it’s VERY much in the electronic genre. I stood near the front and when the band started playing it sounded like they were covering Crystal Castles, as did the next song, as did the next. It was O.K. but it got to the point where I was questioning whether it was actually Liars or the joke was that they were lying and not being themselves, the only tell-tale sign it was in fact Liars was Angus Andrews and his snake hips. Good on Liars if this is the route they are going down, change is good, the music was good, but I think I will be giving their shows a miss in future if they are all going to be populated by BROS spending the entire show staring at girls to hide the fact they are secretly in love with their best mate. Walking back from Liars I caught a Spanish band by the name of Los Planetas, when I say caught I mean I literally saw about 2 minutes of their set whilst stood behind a Spanish man air guitaring, they were good, they sounded like My Bloody Valentine so I advise you check them out if you haven’t already and that’s your kind of thing. Speaking of My Bloody Valentine, who better to end the weekend on and to wake me back up gone half two in the morning (I wasn’t taking any drugs so I have an excuse for being tired gone midnight, alright?) every single song, louder than the other, both a noise attack and a visual attack, with the epileptic strobe lighting I imagine the Spanish moths thought all their Christmases’ had come at once. Ending on ‘You Made Me Realise’ with the camera panning in on lots of teary faces sums up the weekend for me, thank you Primavera!
Obviously with the weekend sponsored by Heineken you’re going to be hard pushed to find anything other than piss to drink during your time, so I advise stocking up on something better if you are to make the trip over in 2014. And if you have managed to read all this (well done!) and are still not sure whether the trip abroad is worth it, let me just tell you how refreshing it is to go to a festival where the cameras aren’t constantly zooming in on questionably young girls trying to get them to get their tits out, a festival free of stupid fucking chants such as “ALAN, ALAN, ALAN!” and how lovely it is to just walk around a festival site without the feeling that it’s just a glorified Fashion show. Primavera is an old school festival that’s all about the music and long may that continue.
