Primavera Club 2012 in brief, day 3

After a few "technical issues", here's the last chapter of the review series of the Primavera Club Festival.

The Good

Standing Against Heart Crime. Photo: Bloodbuzzed

Stand Up Against Heart Crime- Nice surprise. Convincing sound: a bit of synth-pop, some kraut-rock, some post-rock with an eye on the dancefloor, a slightly dark atmosphere, and foremost, solid songs. Pretty sure it won't be the last post about them.
Toy- My "big name" of the night, all the expectations were quickly confirmed. Their music is fierce, polyhedral, a sonic blast. Even despite the sound wasn't the best, what a band.

The Vaccines. Photo: Bloodbuzed

Mark Lanegan Band/ The Vaccines- Lanegan was powerful & flawless, as expected, and his band was impressive (spectacular guitars). Sadly, his gig was misplaced, he should have played on a more intimate venue, interested people would have enjoyed it more. On the other hand, The Vaccines, despite sounding quite shallow on great tunes like "Post Break-up Sex" or "Teenage Icon", proved they already have an impressive "army" of infallible pop-rock songs.

The Bad
Shut your mouth! (part 3)- We suffered a new modality of this despicable catalogue of lack of education/respect for the artist or the people attending a gig. During Stand Up Against Heart Crime, at the very front row, the band's crew/people didn't stop talking for a single second. It's a strange way to help your supposed friend/partner on the stage, don't you think?

Toy in Barcelona. Photo: Bloodbuzzed

Toy- A very short gig, that didn't include the mind-blowing "Motoring", because it ended abruptly. Was the band so furious about the sound? Frustrated? The audience was for sure...
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti- I don't care about Pitchfork's (add/replace for whatever magazine/blog/music reference you prefer instead) opinion. The music of this guy is beyond horrible. He is capable of taking all the (admittedly) dubious music styles, like soft-rock or sunshine-pop and transform into forms of torture. Add that he sounded plain awful at Sant Jordi Club (atrocious volume). Like being at the dentist without anesthesia. Poor ears....
Strange line-up- Probably it has to do with the problems the organization has faced, but the running order of the gigs was a bit weird. Deerhoof tried very hard to connect with the audience, and have to be praised for that, but their music is too "special" to reach such a big crowd. Same applies to the music of Mark Lanegan. But one thing is for sure: they don't fit together. Add more confusion with the disastrous gig of Ariel Pink's following Lanegan. The result? Quite a tired audience leaving before what it was, in principle, the biggest gig of the night, The Vaccines.

The Queen
Farewell Primavera Club- There was nothing quite outstanding or memorable on Saturday. As a matter of fact, for me there was an atmosphere of... exhaustion. Something that makes sense if you think on the decision the Organization of the Primavera Sound announced on Sunday. Won't be another Primavera Club in Spain. After the unacceptable behavior of authorities in Madrid and (to a lesser extent) in Barcelona, the shameful rise of the VAT to cultural events, their decision is absolutely understandable. From a human perspective, of the entrepreneurs with a consolidated and successful event fed up of dealing with such a stupid (sorry but that's the word) bunch of people, makes even more sense. But for me, and I assume that for any music lover located or able to visit Spain for Primavera Club, this is just a let-down of gigantic proportions. It's very simple: it feels like I have been abandoned for the ones that were able to bring us the music I love.