Primavera Club 2012 in brief, day 1

Update on the first day of the Primavera Club 2012!

The Good

Dusted at Arteria. Photo: Bloodbuzzed

Arteria: After the amount of incredible and despicable obstacles the Organization has faced regarding the venues of the Festival, I was thinking the unknown Arteria Paral·lel wouldn't be a suitable place. But on the contrary, it is such a wonderful venue for having concerts. It's even a very pretty and comfortable place. Now, can you imagine how nice it would be having a Primavera Club just between Sala Apolo and Arteria (they are in front of each other)?

Dusted & The Soft Moon: One of the best things about Primavera Sound/Club is discovering new bands. It always happens and that's precious. Dusted was a total surprise. Fantastic melodies, somewhere in-between space-rock and folk-rock, like Neil Young or Fleet Foxes being helped by Dave Fridmann on production. Definitely band to check. And the last act of the night, The Soft Moon,  although not really my taste, wow! Sounded terrific. It was nice to be in madchester or an 80s dark club for a while.

Bjorkas from Cats on Fire. Photo: Bloodbuzzed

Cats on Fire: Wasn't the best of sounds and there were some other issues (read below), so not all the gig was that remarkable, but some songs were outstanding ("My Sense of Pride" was amazing) and folks, we do have a frontman here. Mattias Bjorkas looks like a young David Bowie, moves likes Ian Curtis (spasmodic dances), stares at talks to you like with a naughty and intriguing face... and hey! The guy can sing and deliver all the jangle pop wonders their fantastic tunes have on record live. Cats on Fire will become bigger and bigger.


The Bad
Shout Your Mouth!: This is becoming very worrying and frustrating. People comes to gigs to talk and comment with his/her partner/group. They don't give a damn about the music. I'm not that innocent: I know there's a huge amount of people who goes to Festivals like Primavera because is "an event to be". It looks "cool". But this is ridiculous. I go to the concerts to hear & watch the artists I like or to discover new proposals. I can chat with my friends in between concerts, comment about a song when it is finished, before a new one starts, or outside the venues. But I don't need to hear the f****** annoying beeep from your Iphone every second. I don't care you are chatting through whattsapp or saying how cool you look on twitter with your new hat! If you don't care about the music, at least show some respect for the ones playing, or trying to listen them.
Low voices: Don't know if it has to do with mics or singers, but Brian Borcherdt from Dusted and Mattias Bjorkas from Cats on Fire's voices in particular sounded very low (and I was at the front row). In both cases, this limited the impact of their otherwise excellent performances.
Organization & the Press: Why the press has a much more reduced schedule to pick up their accreditation? Don't seem very logic for me to put such an obstacle for the ones that would like to see as many bands as possible to review them. Besides, press has the same accreditation as the regular audience, so why the restrictions?

The Queen

Great Lake Swimmers. Photo: Bloodbuzzed

Great Lake Swimmers: Sure, this is a personal choice, but the Canadians were, as I hoped, sensational. Their delicate folk sounded elegant, subtle and rich, with plenty of moments to be remembered. I have to highlight the moments were Tony Dekker and Miranda Mulholland's voices intertwined. Plus, the fact than despite being a short gig, they played personal favourites from "Ongiara" and "Lost Channels", like "Your Rocky Spine", "Pulling On a Line" or "I Am Part of a Large Family". Even the aforementioned disrespectul people was unable to harm the beauty of their music. Finally saw them live, and it was completely worth it.

Many more bands today and tomorrow, so more updates coming very soon. Stay tuned!