Paredes de Coura Festival 2012 - the preview
My personal favorite festival Paredes de Coura is just ahead and we’re here to welcome it. Almost a landmark in Portugal, Paredes de Coura is turning twenty this year. And what a big boy it has become. From the likes of Sonic Youth, Arcade Fire, Dinosaur Jr., Queens of the Stone Age, Yo La Tengo, Mogwai, PJ Harvey, Pixies, Death from Above 1979, Morrissey, Bauhaus, The Cramps (and we could keep going), the shores of river Tabuão (that sets the perfect idyllic scenery) have seen it all. More than you probably will in your whole life.
Erlend Øye down by the river © Hugo Lima
It’s Sunday night (not exactly the most rock n’ roll of nights) and I’m watching of Montreal. I haven’t even been drinking, but the balloons, the mischievous piglets, the confetti, the large inflated synthetic boobies (you kinda had to be there), and a mesmerising (not to mention topless) Kevin Barnes sure have the same effect. Having seen them at Primavera Sound last year, I was glad to get a chance to see them in a more ‘intimate’ setting, where, in addition to seeing the setlist in advance, I was able to see the colour of Kevin’s socks, the stealth dancers creeping their way to the front of the stage and the smiles exchanged between band members. Obviously they were never going to play all the songs I would have liked (I’m still dreaming of a Kevin Barnes acoustic set in a tiny back room of a coffee shop), but a set including Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse, The Party’s Crashing Us, A Sentence Of Sorts In Kongsvinder and a sped up version of She’s a Rejector still left us singing our hearts out all the way home.
SAJB
