Primavera Sound 2019 (Day 2)
After a nice first day, whose highlights were clearly for me the concerts of Christine and the Queens and Myrkur, on to the second day of Primavera Sound!
We started with a nice touch of shoe gaze made in Ireland, with Just Mustard. The music, if not entirely innovative, was nice and melancholic as I like it. I really appreciated the singer's voice as well. But to be honest, nothing happened on stage. All the musicians were a bit static. As for the singer, she just seemed to be deeply bored. So, OK, you don't have to jump around like crazy during your whole gig, I get that. That's not what I'm expecting from a concert either. But this was a bit of a "strict minimum" gig... Again, nothing bad to say about the music and voice. But I could have stayed home and listened to their records loud and it wouldn't have changed much...
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| Just Mustard |
Back to Pitchfork stage to see Liz Phair, one of the mothers of indie and obviously, one of the names I really wanted to see on that day. Well, she did not disappoint! The sound was quite crappy, unfortunately. But Ms Phair showed so much energy and generosity on stage that she kind of made me forget about the rest. The set list was a very democratic and rather exciting one as well. I particularly enjoyed hearing songs like Mesmerizing, Extraordinary or Why Can't I. As for the singer, like I wrote before, she proved to be not only generous on stage, but also cool and fun, exclaiming at some point "I love my job!" Why, lucky you... and lucky us for witnessing such enthusiasm!
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| Liz Phair |
Even if I have become an expert these last years in avoiding going there, I have to confess we did undertake the journey to Mordor once again... until I remembered the seaside walk I so happily discovered last year, which made it much easier than Frodo and Sam must have had it!
Why go back to Mordor? For Janelle Monáe, of course! If not for the giant screens on each side of the stage, I guess we wouldn't have seen much... But even from far, she sounded pretty amazing! Saying that the artist is charismatic is an understatement... If Bowie and Prince had had a daughter together, it would undoubtedly be Janelle Monáe. Her extremely efficient blend of funk, pop, soul and hip-hop goes accompanied with a real show, multiple changes of costumes and brilliant choreography included. Political issues are not forgotten, though. If the artist pleads for unity, welcoming everyone to the show, she doesn't fail to remind that she stands for the marginalized, the rights of women, blackness, queer identity, the working class and the immigrants. "As a queer black woman in America, I hate what Trump is doing", she exclaims between songs, to many cheers from the audience. Obviously, the ode to the vagina was another highlight of the concert, supported by the now famous "vagina trousers" (if you have no idea what I'm talking about, I'll be nice). From a strictly musical point of view, sound could have been better, but it is to be expected during a festival. Aside from that, I have to say the singer's voice sounded really great and it is quite refreshing to see that she seems to genuinely enjoy herself! The end of the concert was quite epic too. After Make Me Feel and I Got the Juice, Janelle Monáe started what would turn out to be a 10-minute version of Tightrope, during which she darted off into the crowd, before the final encore with one of my favourites: Come Alive.
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| Janelle Monáe |
Although I took no photos of the show, the conditions being really too unfavourable, this was very clearly my third wow moment since the beginning of the festival! It was with a huge smile and an irrepressible urge to keep dancing that I finally left Mordor to go back to my favourite spot at Primavera, aka the stages by the sea!
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| Proof that there's a bit of grass in the middle of all that concrete! |
The idea was to go and see Aldous Harding. Which we did. I don't know if it's because the contrast with Janelle Monáe was far too sharp or simply because I was not in the mood... but we found the concert boring, to be honest. After the adrenaline shot we just had, this one felt like a downer. Still, I tend to think it is also the festival factor that didn't help. I'd definitely go and see her again in a more intimate setting.
First excursion of the day to the Adidas stage, weirdly enough. And there we had our high again! Amyl and The Sniffers gave us a true moment of rock'n'roll! Dirty riffs, punk attitude, a singer that is a pure whirlwind of raw energy... It was hard not to enjoy the gig! If I want to be completely honest, the music hasn't completely fascinated me and I found it did sound a bit repetitive after awhile. But the band is great and the music is sharp, efficient, energetic... and just perfect to be played and enjoyed live!
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| Amyl & The Sniffers |
And another drastic change of style with Kate Tempest. I didn't really know what to expect... and what happened was simply incredible. Hard to describe such a moment, actually, but I'll give it a shot, even though I probably don't have anything to write that hasn't already been said... We arrived about 15 minutes into her show. The stage was practically bare, which already created a sharp contrast with so many of the headliners we could see this year. No dancers. No pyrotechnics. Only a large white circular screen, which occasionally caught Kate Tempest's silhouette and on the other hand, her musician. Hip hop rhythms mostly, but also some ambient sounds, and from time to time, these unexpected crescendos that created the perfect background for the incendiary rhymes of the singer. And that is exactly where I was caught off guard... I am no huge fan of hip hop and I know practically nothing about spoken word. And still, I was absolutely fascinated during the whole concert, drinking words and feeling all the intensity that show transmitted. I think, now that some time has passed since the concert, that my fascination was two-fold: it was the singer herself, the way she delivered her rhymes, the rhythm she put into her words; and it was the rhymes, the message and the emotions. Kate Tempest talks to us about... us, really. About our world, our lives, about today. She talks to us about the mundane, and she makes it beautiful, angry, bitter and moving. "I stand weeping at the train station / 'Cause I can see your faces / There is so much peace to be found in people's faces"... And just like that, against all odds, emotion was so intense that my eyes teared up... Fourth, very intense, wow moment of this Primavera Sound...
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| Kate Tempest |
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I saw it roaring
I felt it clawing at my clothes like a grieving friend
It said there are no new beginnings
Until everybody sees that the old ways need to end
But it's hard to accept that we're all one and the same flesh
Given the rampant divisions between oppressor and oppressed
But we are, though
More empathy, less greed, more respect
All I've got to say has already been said
I mean, you heard it from yourself
When you were lying in your bed and couldn't sleep
Thinking, "Couldn't we be doing this differently?"
I'm listening to every little whisper in the distance singing hymns
And I can, I can feel things changing
But it's so hard, we got our heads down and our hackles up
Our backs against the wall, I can feel your heart racing
None of this was written in stone
The current's fast, but the river moves slow
And I can feel things changing
Even when I'm weak and I'm breakin'
I stand weeping at the train station
'Cause I can see your faces
There is so much peace to be found in people's faces
(Kate Tempest, People's Faces)
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Photo galleries of the day:
- Myrkur
Photo galleries of Day 2:
Review of Day 3
Photo gallery of Day 3:
- Frank Carter and The Rattlesnakes
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