Primavera Club 2007
Primavera Club 2007
3 - 9 December 2007
The winter version of the Spanish festival Primavera Sound took place last December in Barcelona. In its second edition it presented a few changes: it was prolonged to six days and added a new location with the two halls at Apolo Club (Apolo and La [2]). Every day from two to four bands played in this club, while during the weekend some other shows, especially those having a special character, were held at the Auditorium of the Forum Park.
Like its big brother, Primavera Sound, this festival has a very interesting line up representing a mix of emerging artists and cult legends at both national and international level, which have very different music genres like electronic or rock and pop.
The first band I saw on the day the festival started was The New Pornographers whose show was nothing but a party with the audience dancing and singing their songs. No one seemed to be missing Neko Case or Dan Bejar who where not present on stage. It was without a doubt a very good beginning for this Primavera Club 2007.
The following day, Castanets or Raymond Raposa, the only member of the band, appeared on La [2] to present his third album In The Vines and minutes later the members of the Stars of the Lid hit the same stage to offer us a very different and very special gig which is very difficult to describe with words, you just have to be there and let you be wrapped by their ambient music.
On Wednesday I could enjoy the delicate folk-pop of the British band Fanfarlo with the charming voice of the Swedish frontman, Simon Aurell, and the beautiful orchestration which sometimes reminds of the sound of Arcade Fire. I stayed then in the same hall to see No Age, a duo coming from L.A. which makes heavenly noise, which they manage by mixing crazy loud music with the enough pop sensibility on their vocals. Much to my regret I had to leave in the middle of the gig to see how Crystal Castles were making it in the other hall of the Apolo Club. And unfortunately it took me not much longer to continue regretting it, as this girl-boy duo from Toronto, which was believed to be on of the coolest underground electro bands at the moment, showed on stage nothing new to me: a girl screaming and making poses in front of the staged accompanied by a guy at the drums and synthesizer sounds in the background. But we were now at the middle of the festival and the whole was being very positive despite of this little comedown.
The next day I arrived very late at the club and could only see the Spanish band Nisei, which I did not know before and whose gig was a pleasant surprise to me. They were presenting their second and last album Continents where they include dub elements to their hardcore punk style and sing in Catalan. It was a shame that there was not much audience as most of the people would have been dancing until late the night before or would be trying to save energy for the weekend.
On Saturday John Vanderslice was supposed to be opening the concerts in the Auditorium at the Forum Park, but he was arriving late and had to change slots with Bracken. This band, which is the new project from Chris Adam from Hood, presented his new album We Know About The Need in a set which was an interesting blend of different genres of music where the electronics where always predominant together with the vocal melodies. An hour later John Vanderslice appeared on a stage that seamed to be too big for him. The music of this American songwriter and producer sounded too weak and maybe because of that he finished his show coming down from the stage to join the audience and performed the last three songs in the middle of the Auditorium making a short acoustic set which left a good taste in our mouths after all. After that the members of Earth offered us one of the best concerts in the whole festival. This powerful band leaded by Dylan Carlson performed a set limited to the songs of its last album called Southern Lord. The only thing I regret about this show is not having had the chance to get a cold shower afterwards, as this band leads you into a very special atmosphere making it very difficult to go back to the real world. Last band playing in the Auditorium on Saturday was the Liars and again it was not the optimal stage for them, since their show invited the audience to dance like mad and get out of control while they could only hardly move their heads and feet from their seats.
After that all the festival attendants moved to the Apolo club where the concerts continued with The Ponys. This Chicago quartet presented their last album Turn the Lights Out, in which guitarist Brian Case has joined the band to replace the previous keyboardist Ian Adams, adding more distortion and even more psych-rock sound to their music. According to the program, the next band which was supposed to hit the stage was Von Südenfeld, the new project of the duo Mouse on Mars and Mark E. Smith, singer of The Fall, but this show had to be cancelled because Smith fell ill and the guys from Mouse on Mars appeared alone on stage to performed a Berlin techno style DJ set, which was quite disappointing for all the Von Südenfeld fans.
n Saturday evening we went back to the Auditori to see Deerhunter, the band leaded by the skinny frontman Bradford Cox, which offered a very exiting concert playing very intense and long songs that turned out to be too short for me as I did not want to get away from this blistering atmosphere they manage to create. The show should have been very special and emotional for the members of the band also, as they had announced that it was going to be their last gig before they take a pause of six years. The guitarist of Sonic Youth, Thurson Moore, was next on stage and he also performed a very enjoyable set accompanied by excellent musicians as Chris Brokaw (Codeine, Come), Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth), Samara Lubelski (The Sonora Pine) and Matt Heyner (No Neck Blues Band, Test). They begin the show playing songs with very powerful guitars and ended it with more pop and melodic tunes. After that the last part of the festival was about to begin in the Apolo club with the Bishop Allen. This playful pop group based in Brooklyn make all the audience smile with their rhythmic and catchy songs and afterwards we could continue dancing with the garage and pop music of The Ettes.
by Rosa Gregori
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