FIRST of all sorry for the 4 month hiatus. Between this post and my last post I graduated from university, spent 5 weeks backpacking Europe, moved to a small town, and started a new job.
Now lets re-wind to Friday May 29th at Primavera Sound in Barcelona Spain. Primavera Sound is one of Europe's largest music festivals and always has a killer line-up. My boyfriend and I attended one day of this festival (the day Damien Rice was playing because he is on my list of musicians to see before I die) and it was pretty friggin unreal.
The afternoon started off with Sylvan Esso - an electronic duo from the U.S. playing for the first time in Spain. I blogged about them a while back and was so excited to see them that I forgot my cardigan in a port-a-potty right before their set. The band was super humble and seemed honestly surprised at the large crowd that gathered to see them. Their music is minimal - just vocals and a DJ, but it got everyone swaying and grooving along. Just great vibes all around! They played almost every song on their album. "Coffee" was definitely the highlight for me, I don't know what it is about that song but I just love it and could not have picked a better way to start off the evening.
The location of Primavera Sound is spectacular - right on the edge of the ocean. There were about 6 stages and what was interesting was that the entire area (except one hill) was concrete. I'm not sure what they do with this huge concrete area next to the ocean for the rest of the year but it was pretty great for this festival. One of the stages was in a huge concrete amphitheater. After Sylvan Esso we headed to a different stage to support our fellow Canadians - The New Pornographers who recently put out a new album which Sam and I have been really digging. "Brill Bruises" and "Dancefloor Domine" from the new album are upbeat songs are were awesome live. Neko Case's "Champions of Red Wine" was probably the highlight of the show for me though. The New Pornographers have a lot of great songs which makes for a good concert, but the thing that I found disappointing was that they didn't really seem to be having much fun up there (especially the lead singer). It was more like they were just doing their job which was a little disappointing.
After this set we grabbed a bite, looked at the time and made a mad dash to the stage where Damien Rice (!!!!!) was playing. We got there a little bit late and had to stand pretty far back but that was ok with me because the sun was setting over Barcelona and I was about to see Damien Friggin Rice, who in my opinion is one of the best song-writers in the world, and plus he's Irish. What I soon learned is that he is also INCREDIBLE live. He's one of those artists that really gives everything on the stage and modifies/extends his songs which really demonstrates his talent. Also, the band that accompanies him on his new record was no where to be found - just him, his guitar(s) and some loop pedals - but he was so good it sounded almost as if there was a band backing him. The very first song he played was 9 Crimes - a song that I have loved since I was about 14 and that I even taught myself how to play it on the piano. Needless to say, I cried. Like a baby. He played a lot of songs from the new album My Favourite Faded Fantasy (which needless to say is fantastic). He really slowed down "I don't want to change you" which was cool and played "The Greatest Bastard" with so much emotion I'm pretty sure he was tearing up. "Blower's Daughter" was another highlight for me. His very last song was "It Takes a lot to Know a Man" and he extended it for about 20 minutes with just epic looping and guitar solos. He even sang into his guitar (no microphone) for the last part and the crowd went absolutely wild - and that was it. I was so sad when it was over. Now my boyfriend is not a huge Damien Rice fan - he find his songs too slow, but after that show he was totally converted. He couldn't believe his guitar skills and raw emotion. That's something I have tried to tell him before - seeing a band/musician live is often a completely different experience than listening to them recorded. Sorry the video below doesn't have the best sound but you kinda get an idea of how epic it gets!
Damien Rice is a pretty tough act to follow, but Alt-J put on an awesome show. They are a British band I've been wanting to see for a while. Totally different than Damien Rice because they have lot of different stuff going on in their music - lots of different sounds, both instrumental and electronic and layered voices. What a live about them is they are just so unique - there are no other bands (that I know of anyway) that sounds similar to them. Seeing them live made me realize just how many great songs they have. They are so much more than their 2012 hit - "Breezeblocks". It was pitch black for their set and they had a wicked cool light show that went perfectly with their music. I enjoyed every second of it - especially my two favourite songs "Taro" and "Something Good". My boyfriend really got into this show too and loved it. One song did fall short for me though and that was "Left Hand Free" from their new album. Somehow it just didn't quite sound right live.
The last band we caught was my boyfriend's big time favourite - Ratatat. They played in the concrete amphitheter and had two huge screens with pretty crazy images like parrots cocking their heads and multiplying and lions roaring. This is one of those shows that would have been insane on drugs. The music sounds electronic, but real guitars are used which I loved. My favourites were "Wildcat" and their new song "Cream on Chrome". I actually ended up enjoying this band more than I thought I would.
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