Postcards from Primavera Sound '09: Second and Third Day Highlights

Primavera Sound '09 is now over and as we prepare for the trip back home, let's take a brief look at some of the highlights from the second and third day of the festival.

The second day (May 29) had several strong performances, with Natasha Khan's Bat For Lashes offering one of the most enjoyable sets of the festival. Brooklyn was in the house in full effect, with some of its best new bands playing the Pitchfork stage: Crystal Stilts, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart and Vivian Girls. Shellac and Throwing Muses were, as always, excellent, while several new noise makers made their presence felt, including Fucked Up, Crystal Antlers and The Drones. We also had the time to fit in parts of the performances of Spiritualized, Art Brut, A Certain Ratio and Bloc Party who closed proceedings at the main stage after 3 am.

Magik Markers live@Primavera (May 28, 2009)

The last day of the festival (May 30) was the day of Sonic Youth and Neil Young who gathered the largest crowd of the three days at the main stage. On the other stages we mostly enjoyed Th' Faith Healers (who regrouped recently but managed to be just as explosive as they were in their heyday, back in the '90s), Gang Gang Dance (unfortunately they were playing at the same time with Sonic Youth so I only got to see a part of their amazing set) and El-P, who delivered a supercharged set at 3 in the morning. Deerhunter gathered a large crowd for their performance, but my feeling is that their sound needs a roof above its head for better results. Other bands that we managed to squeeze in during the 10 hours of the third day were Chad Vangaalen, Shearwater, Plants And Animals, Jesu, Oneida, Liars and Simian Mobile Disco.

More details for the three days of Primavera Sound '09, as well as photos and videos (selected from the several GBs worth of material that we have gathered) in our complete report, coming soon..

For now, we're signing off from Barcelona with the video for one of the best singles of the year so far, "Daniel" from Bat For Lashes, one of the stars of Primavera Sound '09:

Bat For Lashes - Daniel