The Primavera Sound continued its course despite Olivia Rodrigo’s surprise concert, but at the Revolut there were slightly fewer people than expected to see Little Simz. Well, very bad. Simbi Abisola has an abrasive charisma and, in addition, today he wears a Spanish national team jersey decorated with his name to fill a giant stage. While I’m moving, trying to get a good spot, a medley between ‘Thieft’ and ‘Flood’ drops and ‘Young’, from their album ‘Lotus’, also drops. Simbi makes many speeches, about his career, remembering his name… After ‘Introvert’ and a somewhat spiritual moment the band disappears. And there is only her, and she shows that she does not need more than that: her presence and her word. He spits ‘Venom’ at full speed, the audience responds with enthusiasm. A lot: they tell me that there are pogos in the first rows. Simz feels comfortable with dancing, because she stands behind some bases, starts throwing shoes as if there were no tomorrow, mixes songs from ‘Drop 7’ (‘Mood Swings’?) while shouting “Make some noise!” And he says that “this concert is a party.” There is a perpetual high, we all repeat the “uh-oh”, while a tropical-bakala version of ‘Open Arms’ falls. Even the band goes out to dance.
This shoe rapture doesn’t last long, and the band starts playing again with ‘Lion’, in a very organic and soulful version. Now it’s you and a bass, he jokes. And the bassist couldn’t be cooler, in fact. And she sings a cappella for a few seconds and gets the ENTIRE esplanade filled and takes on a ‘Point and Kill’ with African airs that fills hearts and feet. She explains to us that she was half injured on stage, that she is very happy to be able to perform despite that. He also remembers his times in Primavera. ‘Selfish’ is particularly silky. But the best thing is the poem that he begins to recite with his steely verb, with that accent, about how love will set us free. Of course, it’s ‘Free’. Very beautiful. It’s getting late, we’re at a particularly chill, ethereal point, with everyone dancing. And of course, if it closes with that wonder that is ‘Gorilla’, little can be added. Well, yes, a couple of things: a friend tells me that Little Simz is the MVP of this Spring edition. Another, which is Messi in 2010.
The presence of Olivia Rodrigo dismantles the route circuit a bit. I am a big fan of the American and I have run out of tickets to see her on her next tour. However, the idea of having to fight my way through hordes of post-adolescents to see it makes me stick to my initial option: My Bloody Valentine. There is a lot of anticipation for the concert, even though there is no new music in sight. Their performances in 2008 at the festival were memorable, especially because of the brutal volume, the physical experience it was. Plugs are distributed among the attendees, we want to relive the sensation of the noise making your viscera vibrate…
But not. There is a moment when I joke about whether they have put the San Isidro volume limiter on them. On top of that, they start with two of my favorites, ‘I Only Said’ and, above all, ‘When You Sleep’ (I love that riff). But they are heard quietly. I also don’t quite appreciate the wall of sound, those thousands of layers. The stage is bathed in mauve, the images on the screens are distorted. Without a doubt, Kevin Shields and his band want to give us an immersive and dreamlike experience of shoegaze and dream pop. But, for now, it is costing them. Already at the third, ‘New You’ from ‘mb v’, the bass begins to rumble. On the fourth, ‘You Never Should’ is done by the drums. The performance is improving, because up to that point the music has sounded too languid to me. Even so, we still do not go deaf. Let’s see, I prefer clarity to power. But something is lost here, and not just volume. I don’t get into the sonic magma.
But ‘Only Shallow’ starts and the layers of guitars begin to sound glorious, Bilinda Mutcher’s buried voice is more piercing. As it progresses the sound improves, you get more into it. In ‘To Here Knows When’ the atmosphere is already total. ‘Slow’ already sounds like a cathedral. And of course, the one that does become catharsis is ‘Soon’. It sounds full, you can appreciate all those details, they lengthen it, it’s like a beautiful endless loop. And then, news is coming: that Olivia has taken out Robert Smith. But, argh, you can’t be at everything and because of WhatsApp I’ve already lost focus.
That’s why ‘You Made Me Realise’ brings me back to the reality/unreality of MBV. Accelerated, without respite, with a final coda that is pure noise… although not deafening. My Bloody Valentine have given a contained and elegant gig. But we expected more. Surely, the fault is our expectations.
About ten minutes before the start of the concert Gorillazout comes Aarab Barghouti, son of imprisoned Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti. He launches a pro-Palestine speech. He explains that his father is one of the 10,000 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, he thanks us because we refuse to look the other way: “For Palestine, for Gaza, for Justice. Free Palestine.” They then unfurl a giant Palestinian flag. And there will still be those who call Damon Albarn lukewarm…
He’s not lukewarm: apart from being involved, he’s one of the coolest people in the galaxy. A paragon of wisdom and musical passion that is especially notable in Gorillaz. The bad thing is that this is a project that I like more theoretically than practically. I feel like the songs are always missing something.
The display on stage is spectacular: a band to take away the hiccups of world musicians, highlighting the plane-stealing bassist, a lot of guests, sound to match, accomplished audiovisuals in which the protagonists, of course, are 2-D, Murdoc Niccals Noodle and Russel Hobbs. However, all the weight of the first part of the concert falls on Damon, who is dressed as a guerrilla with a red hat and Che badge and his eternal air of a twenty-something. Most of the set falls on their latest album ‘The Mountain’. ‘The Happy Dictator’ drops right away. Without Sparks, of course, although they appear in the videos. As soon as the fourth song, ’19-2000′, Damon takes a mass bath: he goes down to the pit, waves, walks around… But despite everything, the concert is being somewhat dull. Things go back to ‘On a Melancholy Hill’: the audience goes da-da-da on his iconic keyboard line. But for a comeback (and my shock), when I see… Kara Jackson appear! To sing with Damon ‘Orange County’. Very heartfelt, thanks to Kara’s voice. But it feels like a waste, in a bad way, to bring her in for just one song. Couldn’t he really have given an entire recital?
Kara’s presence marks the change of direction of the concert: now it is the guests’ turn. Moonchild Sanelly twerks Damon in a very funny way in ‘With Love to an Ex’ and, after another somewhat bland section, Yasiin Bey (previously known as Mos Def) reigns in a couple of songs, one of them is ‘Damascus’, in which Omar Souleyman appears only on video, sniff. But for queen and empress of the universe, Little Simz: in just two minutes she destroys everything in ‘Garage Palace’.
There is a beautiful tribute to Asha Bhosle in ‘The Shadowy Light’, in which we hear her voice and the video shows us images of her life. Posdnuos from De la Soul appears to encourage the staff in the final stretch: he asks us for an injection of energy and gives it to us with a highly popular ‘Feel Good inc’ that unleashes the dance. And if Damon takes out the melodica, we already know what’s coming: end of the party with ‘Clint Eastwood’. This time, with a wonderful introduction with Indian flute. At times Damon doesn’t sing: the audience does, while we do spasmodic dances singing “The future is comin’ on.” But it is strange that the rap sounds recorded and has not been entrusted to any guest. In short, a brilliant concert, depending on the guest…
