The Saturday of Low Festival was marked by a much larger crowd than on Friday and by a brief threat of rain that, luckily, did not worsen. A few drops fell that seemed to announce a storm, but everything ended in a scare. The sky remained overcast for hours, retaining heat even well into the night. There were many of us who would have appreciated a downpour, although the memory of the past Primavera Sound makes us be cautious with what we wish for.
Antonio Soria Park is filled with group t-shirts, especially among fans of The Hives – many of them surprisingly young – and Love of Lesbian: The John Boy Fan Club t-shirts appear everywhere: you only have to walk a few meters to come across another one.
The presentation of ‘A stroke of luck’ by The Dove It combines new hymns like ‘Sale el sol’ or ‘Sé lo que Quiero’ with the now essential ‘The Age I Have’, one of the songs most sung by its followers, and also with specific reflections on current political events that are very relevant. They will not be the only ones to allude to Ayuso’s penthouse during the day, but they do so to claim the most popular Madrid. After mentioning the attic and being dissatisfied with the fact that “this rock represents the city that our parents and grandparents have built”, they assure that “they are never going to keep it” before introducing ‘Bravo Murillo’: “Talk about that Madrid that is not the fucking shit they are making it out to be, and I hope it comes back.”
In parallel, the concert of The Hives It is an oasis of euphoria where only fun exists and the world’s problems are put aside. There’s also not much mental space for anything else when you watch Per “Pelle” Almqvist shake from one side of the stage to the other like a man possessed, transformed into a veritable ball of human fire and a machine gun of screams and spit. They appear, as a block, dressed in black suits with white luminous piping that illuminated during the concert, a futuristic detail that contrasts with the rock ‘n roll immediacy of their music.
The Hives’ show not only sounds perfectly oiled, with sharp guitars and fast-paced rhythms. Pelle once again proves that he is one of the best showmen in rock, speaking more than decent Spanish throughout the concert to insist again and again that silence has no place in a The Hives show or presenting ‘Hate to Say I Told You So’ as a song with “a famous riff all over the world” and “a great hit” that the group is going to play because it loves its audience.
It is then that the first drops begin to fall and some lightning can even be seen in the sky. Luckily, The Hives’ garage download continues without a hitch until it ends with the final steamroller of ‘The Hives Forever Forever The Hives’, which further raises the intensity of an already frenetic concert.
The show also works as an escape route. Butthole Heatwhich ironizes themselves, the public and society in general with the acid humor that characterizes them and without cutting corners. In Torrevieja they insist on “how ugly the city is”, “even more so than Benidorm”, they talk about the “betrayal” that the change of venue has entailed and they rename the town “Torreviejoven” before marking their now usual medley of covers, accompanied by a delirious speech about a supposed MTV Unplugged and a joke about Daniel Sancho. Everything fits here.
Faced with monologues about social networks or the second-hand clothing trend that are funny the first time, although perhaps not so much the second time, the songs continue to be the true strength of the duo. There are the sub-nopop shots of ‘Extremismo mal’, the version of ‘Agapimú’ and, of course, a ‘Mocatriz’ that has now become a popular anthem that the public sings from song to piece.
One of the great national demands of the day, Love of Lesbianoffers in Low one of the last concerts of the Hermandad Tour before the announced break, the extent of which is still unknown. As always, the energy is one of celebration and community – that is precisely what ‘La Hermandad’ is about – and the repertoire once again relies on great emotions and long instrumental developments that turn the concert into a small musical odyssey.
There is no need to remember that ‘Snow Fires’ and ‘Some Plants’ are still anthems, that ‘Contradiction’ already plays in that same league or that the songs from ‘Salvation Army’ coexist perfectly with the classics. The concert passes without any major surprises until, at the end, Santi Balmes’ long-awaited socio-political reflection arrives.
The Love of Lesbian concerts can almost be dated by the reflection that Balmes shares on each tour. This time he talks about overinformation, mentions the migratory crisis in Ceuta, the fires in Madrid and the controversy over Ayuso’s attic before introducing ‘There where we used to scream’. He explains that excess information “impacts” but also “anesthetizes,” and presents the song as a way to release emotions that otherwise remain bottled up. As always, the concert ends up becoming a collective celebration and, shouting “Long live democracy, long live culture!”, the John Boy Fan Club has one last dance before the break.
The concert of Ultralight confirms the enormous growth of the group in just three years. With only one album released, they offer something very similar to a great mythomaniac rock concert, with Gisme turned into a rockstar with sex symbol potential, an image that he himself exploits by performing shirtless, like the rest of the band. It is also surprising how close they sometimes are to metal and hard rock through some riffs, although deep down their songs remain traditional indie. The front rows, mostly female, also show the type of phenomenon that the band has become.
Between songs they remember that they have been playing together since they were 16 years old and that now they are fulfilling a dream. The most emotional moment comes with ‘When everything goes wrong’, dedicated to those who have lost a loved one. While Gisme sings the song, a fan bursts into tears in the front row: that’s as far as the emotions aroused by the band, so early in their career.
They may be criticized for going overboard, but it is appreciated that someone believes it so much on stage. No, it doesn’t happen that much. We can discuss Bunbury’s affected voice, too Bunburian, or debate the quality of the songs, but it is difficult to deny that they put on a tremendously entertaining rock show. They maintain 200% energy even after a 16-hour bus trip from Galicia to Alicante, and Gisme acts as frontman from head to toe: he appears with sunglasses, ends up shirtless, and ends up climbing the sound tower. Another group whose success has caught us by surprise and who, like The Hives, could probably say goodbye saying: Hate to say I told you so.
Like Kasabian the night before, Editors They also occupied the two in the morning slot. The British showed that they are still a safe bet at a festival thanks to a sound that naturally mixes post-punk and indie rock and that, from time to time, steps on the accelerator to gain festival pulse. A dark and elegant universe, supported by the authoritative voice of Tom Smith and by a band that sounded impeccable. The careful arrangement of the musicians on stage, with keyboards and percussion distributed on both sides, along with a striking lighting design, finished off a concert worthy of its history.
