Optimus Primavera Sound 2012: day 1

Porto – © Wilco’s Mikael Jorgensen

Culturally growing since the dawn of the 21st century, the northern Portuguese city of Porto lacked something: a real big urban festival. Luckily for Porto, Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona grew so much the organizers decided it was about time to expand the brand to somewhere else in Europe and Porto, Portugal’s second bigger city and most vibrant cultural hub of the country (exactly what Barcelona is in the Spanish context) was arguably the right choice for the new festival. Not saying that because the city’s nearby the towns where most of the Bolachas team lives. This charming city makes everyone fall in love, from the attenders who came from places like the US, New Zealand or Estonia to artists who traveled the world countless times before coming here – the picture above, posted on Wilco’s Instagram account, is accompanied by a note saying “Let’s all move here!”. (Please do.)

© Hugo Lima, Optimus Primavera Sound

As if the city itself wasn’t beautiful enough already, the festival site is a feast to the eyes, at least for those accustomed to look around and see concrete everywhere. Four stages, three with unleveled land in front of them (great for shorties) that allow people to watch the concerts sitting from a distance; no big publicity panels and screens vomiting all kinds of aural/visual mediocrity. In terms of harmony, probably the best festival we’ve been to. – DSS

StopEstra! © Hugo Lima, Optimus Primavera Sound

This first edition of Primavera Sound in Portugal started with a national project, the huge StopEstra!. When I say that this band is huge, I really mean it: StopEstra! presents itself as the biggest rock band in the world, as they are composed by around one hundred musicians! Under the direction of Tim Steiner, it was very easy for them to make a big party in the inauguration of the Primavera stage. It was like a competition: some of them with drums, others with guitars and other instruments and also some singers, each one giving his contribute to the enormous musical mixture of this orchestra. StopEstra! are a group of people who love to make music together and their power and energy were a nice run-up to the festival. It was a shame that at this hour (5pm) only a few people had already arrived to the festival site, because they really deserved a bigger audience. With the orange plaid-towel that was offered by a sponsor, some sunshine at the end of the afternoon and the green scenario all around the park, the concert of StopEstra! was a delicious way to get in this first edition of PS in Porto. – RBC

Bigott © Hugo Lima, Optimus Primavera Sound

Bigott was next on the Optimus stage. Not a long walk since the two main stages were located side by side; having seen the Spanish songwriter two years ago in Barcelona, I devoted much of the time strolling through the festival site but ended up stomping my feet to “Turkey Moon” and “Cannibal Dinner” (both taken from his latest album The Orinal Soundtrack) like always. – DSS

Atlas Sound © Hugo Lima, Optimus Primavera Sound

Primavera stage was pretty well composed and the reason was Bradford Cox. The genius behind Deerhunter played in Porto as Atlas Sound, and what a nice way to start my festival. I just walked past the gates and all the security and joined my folks at the Primavera stage. The first song I heard it just sounded familiar. Cox was alone in the stage, with his guitar, harmonica and weird guitar pedals, playing an Hank Williams song. “Cheating Heart”. Had me hooked. That’s the moment when I knew Primavera was going to be immense.
In the aftermath of that unique moment, Cox, that fool in love, did pretty damn well. “Te Amo”, “Praying Man”, “Amplifiers” worked as the perfect side dish while I was having a beer. My favorite “Parallax” song “Mona Lisa” was in need of a backing band, though – it sounded a bit frail. Anyway, welcome back, dude. Time for another pint! – JFC

Yann Tiersen © Hugo Lima, Optimus Primavera Sound

Yann Tiersen was next on the Optimus stage. Like every other paragraph written about a Yann Tiersen show, we start by saying most of the crowd spent the whole concert waiting for themes from the Amélie soundtrack. That was over ten years ago and Tiersen’s moved on, forget about it. The French multi-instrumentalist presented his latest album, Skyline (Mute/ANTI-) instead, proving that his catalog goes way beyond his film soundtracks (Amélie and “Good Bye Lenin!”). A guest appearance by the rain mid-set served as an appetizer for what the third day of concerts would end up being: a constant hunt for raincoats given away by the festival’s main sponsor.

Sad to say The Drums are a crashing bore live. Well, at least that one song is gonna live forever (?) in everyone’s minds and not every band is able to achieve that, but I’ll try not to bump into them again on other festivals. Not impressed at all, and not even their fans looked that into it. Jacob Graham’s label seems nice though. Maybe he should work on it full time. – DSS

For a first day of festival we expect some party-heavy concerts (like The Rapture, we’ll talk about that later), instead of some other serious, intimate, made-for-fans-only ones. In this point, Suede proved to be a great choice, although I thought they had been slightly below my expectations. Nevertheless, classics as “Thrash”, “Animal Nitrate” or “So Young” achieved in making the crowd jump to the leadership of the infamously sexy (no homo) singer Brett Anderson. And, as a reasonable fan I think I am of this band, they could use more older songs (ok, songs from the first record) here, as I guess the synth-based ones are hard to please a Primavera public. But oh well, it’s always so much fun singing the “la la las” on their greatest hit “Beautiful Ones”, jumping and hugging some long-time-no-see friends and foreign Suede fans. And for that only, this type of concert is totally worth it. Mssng the 90s. – BSC

After Suede’s concert, Mercury Rev kept the travel through the 90s going. Always with a theatrical attitude and with his eyes fixed in the sky, Jonathan Donahu was the most beautiful butterfly in the whole festival. All of his funny movements and expressions were a great complement to the dreamy psychedelic songs that Mercury Rev brought to Porto. It was my favorite concert in the first night, but it spite of that they disappointed me a little, especially when they pulled to their newest songs. But I forgave them: we were on a festival, so they had to choose some not so quiet songs and they had to present their last album, Snowflake Midnight. Everything was just perfect for me every time that they revisited the incredible Deserter’s Songs: “Endlessly”, “Holes”, “Opus 40” and “Goddess on a Hiway” will always be amazing songs. They missed “Tonite It Shows” though, which was sad. My night finished when Donahu whispered the last part of “The Dark is Rising”: “I always dreamed I’d love you, I never dreamed I’d lose you, In my dreams, I’m always… so strong”. Damn, it was a very beautiful moment. – RBC

Of course the first day saved the best for later. The Rapture. I got to admit I haven’t listened to any of their albums before the latest one, In the Grace of Your Love. Thus, the whole concert seemed like a buildup to something everyone was expecting and yes, of course, that’s when “How Deep Is Your Love” came in. Hell, the whole day of concerts seemed like a giant buildup to this particular moment in time, more than seven hours into the moment the first chord was played on this year’s Optimus Primavera Sound. The crowd going apeshit. Idiots with backpacks flying above dancing-the-fuck-out people’s heads. Now that’s what I call a festival. – DSS