On the first day of Primavera there are two protagonists: Cameron Winter (and Geese) and weather prediction. Some for the better, the other for the worse. First thing in the morning, for now, the weather is holding up well and there is a huge crowd to see Cameron Winter at the Auditori. Even tickets to the festival suffer a small collapse as early as 4pm. Therefore, I direct my steps to the Port stage to see the Portuguese Pause.
This is his farewell tour. I thought they were joking, but no: they tell us that, if we see them again, it is because “we sold ourselves very dearly.” A shame: their Siamese drums are at full capacity, like the guitar, bass and programming. Their proposal mixes some math rock with some psychedelia, even tropicalia. And everything has a certain cruising speed, between the dancing (despite the prevailing heat) and the tropical calm, until they accelerate like machine guns, and give us a good barrage to finish it off. The drummers are going to end up skinned!
The path from the Port to the Revolut stage is clear (thanks, Cameron!) and travels very quickly. I was left wanting to see the show Blood Orange at Paral·lel 62, but there was no luck with the reservation. So I have to see it on a big stage, surrounded by Italian parrots. The concert remains quite faithful to the script explained by my colleague Jordi in his chronicle on Tuesday. Perhaps, here, among so many people, his Arthur Russell-style electric cello version of ‘How Soon Is Now?’ It has a tremendous reception. And despite the distance, it does not lose that soulful warmth.
Dev Hynes shares the vocal duties with his wonderful backup singers, Ian Isiah and Eva Tolkin, the latter capable of making us not miss Caroline Polachek. He also divides up the instrumental tasks: Dev is a frenzy of comings and goings between keyboards, guitar… He seems very happy in ‘Vivid Light’. I am happier, who manages to get ahead and get rid of the parrots. I forgive him for cutting ‘Mind Loaded’, because ‘Best to You’ turns into a joyful party. To round it off, it would have been perfect if all those saxes you hear were present and not pre-recorded. But we forgive him for giving Prince airs to ‘You’re not Good Enough’. Or make ‘Charcoal Baby’ a purita funky jam.
Although the one who takes the lead is Tariq Al-Sabir, who apart from playing almost everything, puts in some wonderful vocals on ‘Countryside’. Meanwhile, Eva nails it in the final ‘The Field’. Dev seems like he wants to tell us something at the end of his concert, but the applause and cheers from the audience cut him off. Smile and shut up. It has been an extraordinary concert. Perhaps you miss that quality of bedroom seclusion that ‘Essex Honey’ breathes, the supernatural delicacy that runs through the entire album. Perhaps it would have been preferable to have enjoyed the concert in a more secluded setting. But seeing Blood Orange at its peak is a privilege.
On the Schwarzkopf stage I will see how he has grown LaBlackie since I saw it at Monkey Week in 2023. The first drops of water are starting to fall, but it doesn’t seem like anything important. Even cooler and funnier, she only needs herself, the showgirl and the base girl to fill it all. He opens with ‘New York’, from his EP ‘2070’. He addresses the audience in Catalan and unleashes his hip hop without concessions. He shoots us with the ‘Fugitive’ gun. However, around 8pm the rain starts to get worse. LaBlackie encourages us when he sees us getting wet.
And it’s fun, and we all dance in our cheap colored raincoats. He asks us if we like reggaeton. But other music begins to be heard in the background. I turn around, and on the Port stage they are playing… The New Eves? Agriculture? Have they been advanced? Theoretically, both scenarios are consecutive and at that time no one is scheduled. And suddenly, the nice rain turns into a downpour with a lot of wind, which makes staying very uncomfortable.
The rain is getting worse, and I opt for a provisional withdrawal until it subsides. What I don’t know, when I leave the premises to take shelter and rest for a moment, is that I will no longer be able to re-enter: the information is arriving in bursts and some cancellations are confirmed. So the provisional withdrawal becomes, alas, definitive. I’m left without Massive Attack or Father John Misty or… Tomorrow will be another day…
