P R I M A V E R A 2 0 1 3

It was my first time to the festival.  Some crazy shit happened.  But mostly, it was about the music…..

SAVAGES

This all lady four piece from London ranked highly on everyone’s ‘Top 5’ acts of the festival list.  Their music is reminiscent of the post grunge fem rock wave that tsunamied over the nineties which is a refreshing change form the shoe gazing wall flower indie girls who are currently quirking all over the alt-rock scene.  These women know how to rock out, seduce a crowd and hold their own.  Lead singer Jehnny Beth is cool as fuck and knows how to dance…she had the audience mesmerised from song one.  Drummer Fay Milton also impressed the crowd with her effortless drum solo’s.  Basically, what i’m trying to say is that I would turn for any one of these ladies.  I plan to stalk them at their next batch of London gigs.

and on the topic of turning…..

JESSIE WARE

Was completely adorable on stage, by the end of her set we were completely smitten.

She has an incredible voice that is both strong and soothing, her set was probably a little bit too mellow for a 10:00p.m festival slot but it still worked well because she has strong r’n’b undertones that keep you grooving even when she’s pelting out a ballad.

I really enjoyed Ms. Ware and encourage everyone to see her if she’s playing at a festival you’re going to etc but I wouldn’t say she is a ‘must see’ act (unless you’re familiar with her work in which case I can assure you she is definitely worth seeing live!)

JAMES BLAKE (a.k.a my boo)

As JB was playing a little after midnight and we weren’t half as drunk as we’d hope to be my gang decided to sit his set out and concentrate solidly on finishing the 1L bottle of vodka we’d smuggled in to the festival which meant that I had to set out to watch him alone.  I’ve seen James play live before and absolutely loved his performance so I had high expectations for his set and was keen to see how his new work was going to sound.

While James never ceases to disappoint me, I was a little miffed that he left Wilehm Scream out of his set.  While I understand artists desire and need to keep their sets fresh, I think that when you’re playing to a large festival crowd it’s important to play your most well known song because that is essentially all the people want to hear!

Having said that he did treat us to a 1800 Dinosaurs* song which I can’t remember the name of but I just remember it was amazing and got the crowd dancing.

If you’ve never seen Blake perform live before you really must.  He has a real talent for translating his music to suit a live performance, it sounds and feels completely different from when you listen to his records and it’s just really impressive.  Also he is a total babe so that helps with everything.

DISCLOSURE

With the release of their debut album ‘Settle’ fast approaching, the blogosphere has been array with opinions about these two brothers (so I might as well throw my 2 cents into the ring)

I think that the argument that Disclosure play it ‘safe’ with their music style and cater only to a ‘commercial’ or ‘mainstream’ audience is completely valid.  They essentially are a one trick pony that consists of laying slick hypnotic beats underneath delicate well lyricised vocals.  It’s nothing new *ahem SBTRKT*  Nothing we haven’t heard or danced to before.  But you know what?  These boys do it 100 million times better!  And so what if they are ‘commercial’?   The point is their music has the ability to raise a crowd from the dead and keep them dancing for hours.  I think that is a worthy merit within itself.

Their set at Primavera was nothing short of mint.  They blended all their well known singles with their lesser known, lyric-less house tracks and just generally kept the already high crowd peaking.

Haters going to hate but all I can say is if you want to dance your ass off and feel like you’re flying then get yourself to a Disclosure gig stat.

Honourable mentions also go to Blur (I feel like Blur don’t need anything written about them.  They were as incredible live as I expected them to be and Damon Albarn is forever a babe.  Hot Chip also fall into this category….they never disappoint).  Simian Mobile Disco and John Talabot were dance revivers, if I ever felt like having a big sweaty dance off then i’d definitely see both of them again.  Crystal Castles were fun but spastic (and not in an interesting way) so while I’m glad I got to see them once in my life I have no real desire to see them again.

Primavera Sound is all about the line up (and dancing all night).  The festival venue is nothing special and the crowd were pretty ho-hum so this is really a festival for the fans. 

*1800 Dinosaurs is Blake’s after party outfit.  It consists of him DJ-ing with a live band accompaniment and is fucking rad.  Highly suggest seeking out their shows if you can!

surisburnbook:

The only thing I’m looking forward to about the royal baby is finding out what this kid’s going to call Camilla Parker Bowles Cornwall. Hopefully just “Camilla.” Or “What Are You Doing Here?”