And inexorably the rain came to wash us all. The owls of “Primavera Sound is no longer what it used to be” must have worked well over the weekend given that on the last day of the festival (here and here if you want to know how the other two went) it was down for at least 3 hours a memorable downpour, peppered with light effects of flashes and lightning to lighten the Barcelona night. Or will it be the fault of that person indicated by Mike Kinsella, leader of American Football (here is our interview from a few days ago), who in a very wet concert of the band (what is more emo than listening to an emo group redo their first famous album after 25 years in the rain?) jokes: «I don’t believe in God, so I can’t blame him. However, people like to find a culprit for everything and I think that the culprit of this deluge could be that boy over there, why not?”.
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The fact is that a storm at a festival is always a low blow. The first drops begin to fall during Pj Harvey’s elegant live on the main stage and then become increasingly denser from Liberato (yes, him, who nevertheless takes home a much appreciated live in which the Palestinian flag will always remain well in view) and Mitski going so far as to cancel the live planned by Clara (yes, her, the one from Sanremo e Sea Outsidewould you have ever said it was on the bill here?) and making the performance of La Zowi, the French-Spanish reggaetonera, who tries to warm up the atmosphere almost unusable perreando like crazy, but being defeated by the weather.
Set free. Photo: Eric Pamies
On a day dedicated mainly to female artists (there are no male headliners today), we only really manage to restart when it’s time for SZA to finally bring her lucky SOS with a crazy performance halfway between a Beyoncé concert and a maritime-themed Disney show. SZA doesn’t miss a note, she dances, sings, acts like hell, taking the concept of r&b to the next level. But speaking of next level, a big note of merit goes to Atarashii Gakko!, the all-female Japanese quartet who, after a past as idols, bring to the stage – for the first European date ever – a fun, energetic, choreographed show. These new twenty-year-olds already have 10 years of career behind them, and everyone can see it. Every step, word, choreography is at the limit of perfection, and the idea of mixing (self) irony and Japanese tradition in a contemporary key is a winning one. After Coachella, hosting Jimmy Kimmel’s late show and Rosalía’s video tribute, the four are ready to take it all here too.
Maybe it’s because it stopped raining, maybe it’s because the audience is almost predominantly English, but Charli XCX’s live performance at 3 in the morning has the appearance of main event. After a surprise show on the beach in the afternoon, the public is here to see the new era of the pop star less than a week after the release of the new album Brat, previewed some time ago by a Boiler Room of Charli herself in NYC. The theme is now clear, Charli wants to make us dance and become the Barbie party girl that she has always wanted to be, ever since she was sixteen years old when she was accompanied by her parents to sing at raves. It took a very long turn, and a series of revolutionary collaborations (SOPHIE, AG Cook), but never have we seen Charli so perfect in the role of her. The show is an hour of clubbing pop, with choruses sung by heart by the audience and edgy instrumentals that make you jump. They range from songs that have overturned the idea of futuristic pop (Vroom Vroom, Unlock It) to unforgettable mainstream hits (I Love Itreturned home after the loan to Icona Pop, Speed Drive from the soundtrack of Barbie). The result? There’s a 3D pop star here among us.
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Charli Of course, as we can see from the various line ups around Europe, and especially from the record releases, these last 12 months have not been memorable and this certainly doesn’t help the programming. The biggest names in pop – see Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Ariana Grande – aren’t playing festivals and the middle tier of world music is currently struggling to find new life after the post-pandemic hangover. For the rest, the festival, even in the midst of the downpour (the good fortune of having a space with a series of permanent covered structures is a huge advantage in these cases), held up. We may not like the Coachella drift of Primavera Sound (and of the big festivals in general), a bit like we may not like the gentrification of European cities (in Barcelona the theme is therefore double), but it is a product of the times. This year there was clearly an attempt to bring a certain rock back to the stage, as per tradition, but it was seen that a whole segment of the public (the under30s) is not very interested in guitars or certain sacred monsters so, of course, there is respect, but not that adrenaline that a festival needs.
It will be curious to see where Primavera will end up in a season that is musically fresher than the recent one. Will he return to his past, will he try to maintain this precarious balance between different worlds or will he try a third way? In 12 months we will have the first answers.
