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

Postcards from Primavera Sound '09: Day Two is on the way

The second day of the Primavera Sound '09 festival is starting soon. Among the bands appearing today we have Crystal Stilts, Vivian Girls, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, Bat For Lashes, Art Brut, ex-Grandaddy Jason Lytle, Spiritualized, Crystal Antlers, Throwing Muses, Jarvis Cocker, The Drones, Fucked Up, Shellac, A Certain Ratio and Bloc Party.

The first day of the festival had a bit of an 80's (or early '90s) class reunion feel to it, with several bands from that era dominating proceedings: My Bloody Valentine headlined the main stage with a LOUD as hell 1 hour 20 minutes set culminating with three of their best tracks ever, played back to back - "Soon", "Feed Me With Your Kiss" and an extended "You Made Me Realized" which turned into a white noise fest. Earlier Yo La Tengo and Spectrum played the main stage, while across the other stages we had several bands from the '80s and '90s: the recently reunited Jesus Lizard were as wild and awe-inspiring as ever, The Vaselines were in high spirits and reminded us all their classic '80s pop tunes ("Son Of A Gun", "Molly's Lips", "Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam", "You Think You're A Man", "Dum Dum") and The Bats brought back the timeless sound of '80s Kiwi pop (maybe it's about time for The Chills to reunite as well?). We also had time to see Magik Markers playing a charmingly shambolic show early in the afternoon, a bit of Phoenix, Lightning Bolt, Bowerbirds and Aphex Twin, and the night ended with the enticing psychedelic freakout of The Wooden Shjips from San Francisco.

More details, photos and videos from Primavera coming soon. Meanwhile, here's a clip from an older, typically explosive Jesus Lizard performance. One of the best punk bands ever is back in action and hungry for more mayhem!