Early on Saturday at Primavera Sound, before seeing Little Simz, MBV and Gorillaz, I taste the last minutes of Ven’nus on the Shwarzkopf stage. The Catalan is dedicated to bedroom hyperpop, in which her voice stands out. He says that it makes no sense to be at Primavera Sound and not play his song about Primavera Sound and that he doesn’t care if they cut it… But they cut it and he has no choice but to stop, because it starts Sofia right in front, on the Port stage.
Sofia’s dark, retro-futuristic synth-pop contrasts with the killer sun and heat that falls at a quarter past five in the afternoon. Alone, in rigorous black, she handles keyboards and programming. Their music is as suggestive as it is sober, it seems rescued from a demo of an old group from 1981, with a lo-fi touch that can also remind us of John Maus. She dances engrossed in her songs, and the bass and rolls resonate, in a physical way. ‘I don’t care’ increases the bpm, a few of us daredevils dance in the sun. Little gems like ‘Círculos’ or ‘Ganar el amor eternal’ fall in, with good reverb in the voice. And it closes with the mini-hit ‘Say Goodbye’, martial and robotic.
After the heat, the shadow and the stands of the Cupra stage are blessed glory. And even more so if they serve to see Grace Ives. In fact, there are many brave people in front of the stage, in the sun at 6 p.m. No wonder: Grace is a gale of joy, pink hair, and super pop with just the right touch of drama, she exudes an energy from John Hughes’ 80s teen movies. She is accompanied by a minimal band: a drum set and synthesizers. It starts with an irresistible ‘Avalanche’. The keyboard riffs sound thunderous. He finally takes off his sunglasses in another hit, ‘Fire 2’. But they just announced Olivia Rodrigo’s concert, and many attendees around me scream. I lose track of the concert for a moment checking WhatsApp and commenting on the play, but I return with the oceanic beauty that is ‘Now I’m’. ‘Stupid Bitches’ is a great closer: everyone in attendance is bouncing and Grace spins happily, to the rhythm of the infectious synth lines. Concert of pure joy.
The Sophs They have the label of “looking like the Strokes.” But when I get to the Port stage, what they remind me of is Mano Negra or Calexico, because of that fun they put together between Tex-Mex music, mariachi drive and Spanish guitar. But they also have a lot of 90s alternative rock, ska and punk rock. Live they are much more energetic and crazy than on record. If they lower the piston for a moment, then they joke that the next time “they are going to play it faster.” However, when ‘Sweat’ arrives, you can see The Strokes-style workmanship. But it’s just one more ingredient in his crazy and effective mix.
The concert of Gelli Haha It is the quintessential pop concert of the entire festival, forgive me the rest of the candidates. But it is an example of how to put together a perfect show with few elements and a lot of imagination and talent. On the Shwarzkopf Stage are Gelli and her collaborators: two dancers, a drummer, a flutist and a programmer, who perform a show choreographed to the millimeter and super aesthetic, all in flat colors, their red and the yellow that appears on the screens, with props that seem taken from the Party Fiesta. The concert invites you to take photos and videos all the time, given the large number of iconic moments that occur. And, at the same time, you don’t want to photograph anything, because then you lose detail.
All to enhance the “Gelliuniverse” of ‘Switcheroo’, an artifact of Martian pop songs, full of influences and, at the same time, very personal. Gelli is like a comic book character, a kind of manga super heroine. All of us present are devotees of the “Gelliuniverse” and, as soon as the bars of ‘Funny Music’ sound, we are already exhausted, of course. And everything happens incessantly before our amazed eyes: multicolored tents, jumping on trampolines in ‘Bounce House’, going down into the pit in ‘Piss Artist’, playing a saxophone solo with a cuchufleta in ‘Dynamite’, imitating Esther Williams in dry in ‘Pluto Is not a Planet Is a Restaurant’… There are even hula-hop dances! At Primavera they go a little off script to sing happy birthday to Juju, one of the dancers. Everything is that crazy and wonderful until the closing with their new single ‘Klouds will Carry Me to Sleep’. A frenetic and fun show. And one of the festival concerts.
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