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NOS Primavera Sound : An Appreciation Of Porto

  • Published in Live

A while ago this site contained a few city guides for a handful of places in the UK & what they had to offer for the live music fan. They weren't regularly updated so we dropped them. This piece is though intended, in part, to fulfil the same function for Porto, where the younger & smaller Primavera Sound (NOS being the main local sponsor) event takes place a week or so after the original in Barcelona.

Having popped my cherry at the Barcelona event in 2016 & being possessed of a wish to visit Porto for two or three years it seemed obvious upon the release of the earlybird tickets for 2017 that one be bought as the event must have the same line-up in each city, right? Wrong - the Porto event has only four stages & consequently gets mainly the middle tier acts so no underexposed newbies or headliners such as Arcade Fire. Still, 85€ for the event was fine with me.

The city itself offers a very cheap and enjoyable holiday experience. Given that Ryanair only fly there from Edinburgh on Tuesdays & Saturdays I naturally had to plump for a week of sunshine with temperatures around the 30 degrees centigrade mark, rather than mist the final day of the festival. There's more than enough to keep you occupied aside from the festival, whether it be the art collection of Serralves, visiting as many churches as possible, doing one or more of the tourist tours or just crawling the bars drinking either the very cheap Super Bock or sampling the local wares of the city's newer brewers, seeing as it's experiencing a growth of those the same as most other places. There's also the wine. And the coffee. And the 1€ cakes and sandwiches although full meals cost far less than at home too.

Travel is cheap too - an hour on the train south to picturesque Aveiro set me back 4€ each way and the Metro around the city & out to the park where the festival takes place is in the main under 2€ for a single journey. There's an Oyster-like system in place so once you have your smartcard from the machine at the airport you merely need to top it up with the right fare(s) and step on and off buses & Metros as your needs dictate.

As mentioned NOS Primavera Sound takes place in a park, which gives it the edge over the Barcelona event in terms of comfort. At no time are you walking across a dusty, concrete desert and the hillsides allow for clear views of the stages from a prone position. As the overall site is though smaller there are far fewer art, clothing etc. stalls (my poster tube was a redundant piece of luggage this year) but, particularly if you're female, you can get a good fix of second-hand clothes shopping done in the city and the quality of prints, badges, cards & other artwork for sale (particularly around Rua de Miguel Bombarda and at the Circus Network space) is very high.  

So who was actually any good at the festival? Swans were a revelation to be honest. Not a band I've ever given much time to and I opted to chat to a site contributor over seeing them at Le Guess Who? a couple of years ago but this weekend their two hour set held me for the duration. I'm pleased to say I've finally seen Arab Strap although they maybe want to give themselves a rest from 'The First Big Weekend Of The Summer' and Teenage Fanclub were a solid presence on the Friday evening. 

Shellac were better than in Barcelona last year, possibly down to the Palco stage being head height rather than half that again. Mitski was good fun, Hamilton Leithauser was emotive, Against Me! were rock and roll, The Make-Up were infectious although having Ian Sevonious stand all over you was probably not what many in the centre of the crowd had bargained on, Wand were a great blast of energy & infectious guitar work (what King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard failed to be) and the tail end of the Evols set gave a hint that I'd missed something epic by being a tad late that day. Metronomy, who I see in a new light following Joe Mount's recent dismissal of The Flaming Lips, Japandroids and Pond were also great crowd pleasers.

Elsewhere Aphex Twin was a slow burner which I left for more immediate pleasures, Cymbals Eat Guitars seemed either oddly placed in the bill or are virtually unknown in Portugal, Cigarettes After Sex were nothing special (& what's with that REO Speedwagon cover?), Sleaford Mods were as bombastic as expected but if you've seen five minutes of them you've seen the whole show (which kind of goes for Death Grips too), Songhoy Blues got a good reaction from the crowd and Royal Trux were as ramshackle as when I last saw them 20 or so years ago. Sure they walked off about 20 minutes earlier than they should have but fair play - for all the drivel spouted between songs they didn't forget any of their lyrics, much as that constantly seemed a possibility. The Growlers failed to live up to expectations, sounding oddly one dimensional compared to on record.

Homegrown acts Samuel Uria, Rodrigo Leao & Scott Matthew and Miguel unfortunately made little impression on me. On the whole though I'd say the event for me came out ahead of its bigger brother, not least for the better quality food on offer but transport away from the site (the closest Metro ceases at 22:00) was better organised & information about it more readily available.

NOS Primavera Sound is for a weekend, not for life though & the city's live music scene continues after it's all over. To that end I headed along to the Cave 45 venue on Monday night to see Cleveland's Archie & The Bunkers, ably supported by energetic & entertaining local garage punks The Magnets. Two rather unorthodox acts - the latter field a bass/drum/organ & singer formation whilst the youthful headlining duo share vocal duties and play just a drumkit and an organ, albeit with gobs of energy & passion. The venue itself has good sound and two decent bars so provided a fine location to see out the end of this Portuguese live music experience.

Cheers to Eduardo & Francisco for excellent Couchsurfing, Ana for driving and Chris for the banter.

Further event photographs here.

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BBC Radio 6music Festival 2017, Various Venues, Glasgow - Day 2

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The sun is blinding today in Glasgow. Apollo shines his light on the 6music Festival. The blessing of the gods follows us to the Barrowland ballroom. The Barras Market is in full swing and American singer Haley is talking to us after lunch. The Minnesota based singer plays Saint Luke's around the corner tonight with Sacred Paws, The Lemon Twigs and Car Seat Headrest. We'll be at Barrowlands too for Bonobo, Thundercat, Loyle Carner and Songhoy Blues.

And that's where we'll start tonight's adventure, with Loyle Carner it the main room. Security is tight here and given recent events, we'll just have to tolerate it. The young English lad performs vocal gymnastics over the mellow but effective backing of his DJ. The bass makes the jelly in our eyeballs tremble. Carner lived in Glasgow when he was younger, he even owns a kilt.

His autobiographical lyrics are a million miles from the sparkle and bling of some of his American counterparts; particularly when he's dressed in slacks and a woolly jumper. He carries a towel like Vegas-era Elvis. From up front at the barrier, he’s an impressive performer too. I don't see much hip-hop but I could be converted.

Over to Saint Luke's for Sacred Paws and this place makes a great first impression. You come around the corner from Barrowlands and there it is; a standalone deconsecrated church with gothic ornamentation. Inside, the stage has been expanded to accommodate the BBC logistics. The drum riser sits at the foot of a set of organ pipes and between two stained glass windows, each about five metres tall.

The start is delayed and music plays over the PA. Sleeper’s ‘Inbetweener’ followed by REM’s ‘Don't Go Back To Rockville’, one could put up with this. Eventually Liz Kershaw appears to introduce the band. They play danceable music with tight harmonies that would make The Bee Gees sit up and take notice. The guitars and drums unleash rhythms that are somewhere between math rock, Bloc Party and Paul Simon's Graceland. There are moments of early Vampire Weekend punkiness blended with tribal beats and glimpses of The Raincoats. They’ve a debut album coming out and from this display it will be well worth a listen.

Barrowlands has filled up rightly for Californian bassist Thundercat whose latest solo album has taken the world by storm. He's known for his signature six string bass, 50% more than the average, and for his work with acts as diverse as Suicidal Tendencies and Kendrick Lamar. It's too jazzy and self-conscious for my liking. You'll pass fifty similar acts at Glastonbury without pausing for too long. Too much of it sounds like the satirical “Jazz Club” from ‘90s sketch programme The Fast Show.

So with that, it's back to Saint Luke's for Haley. The sun has set so the huge neon Barrowlands sign has been turned on. It's quite a sight. Saint Luke's is lit up in the festival livery too. We spoke to Haley earlier today. This is the start of a European tour for her and she's a big fan of Car Seat Headrest who play this stage later tonight. She's played NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert and Later...With Jools Holland so the 6music Festival will be familiar territory.

It’s difficult to categorise her music. She's creatively restless and mercurial. The set opens with a torch song sung to a drum machine and sweeping guitars while the second is up-tempo rock in the vein of her other band Gramma’s Boyfriend. She's working on the third album of that band as well as a collection of short stories, and that’s on top of her solo stuff. You can read that interview here later in the week.

Described as desert blues Mali's Songhoy Blues are going down a storm in Barrowlands. They've a heavy dub reggae influence making them reminiscent of The Clash. They have fans in the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Strokes and it's obvious why. There are a lot of shared influences. Lead singer Aliou Toure dances hypnotically between verses, eliciting uproarious cheering from the audience. Three songs in they are joined by a brass section for a song from their new album. The rolling bass and the horns make it sound like Level 42 with Songhai lyrics. They sing in English too and Toure straps on a Les Paul for an old favourite. They've a following here in Glasgow and it gets a massive reception.

Across the way in Saint Luke's The Lemon Twigs are having an extensive warm up before starting their set. The New York four piece are suffering technical difficulties but manage to overcome them and deliver some infectious harmonies. They mix rock ‘n’ roll, doo wop, and musical theatre. There are moments when it is hard to believe that there are only four of them on stage. Jim Steinman could use these guys for Bat Out Of Hell 4, provided the songs were up to scratch. There's a touch of Freddie Mercury to it too.

Barrowlands is eagerly awaiting tonight's headliner. Bonobo's sixth album, Migration, came out in January. He's someone who has passed me by over the years so I'll be interested to see if he can win over a sceptic, as Future Islands did last night. Over a steady drone the band enter the fray one at a time over the course of several minutes, each adding their own contribution to the cacophony. The six players assemble in a semi-circle at the front of the stage, facing the audience.

After five minutes, there is a break and they begin the next song but there is too little happening in the tunes to hold the interest. This is headphone music being played in a cavernous room. Guest vocalist Szjerdene helps add some variety and interest but it just doesn't work in this environment. It's a pity to end the day in disappointment but with Loyle Carner, Songhoy Blues, Haley, Sacred Paws and The Lemon Twigs, this has still been a good day for music.

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