A few more little sleep and we made it to the second day. This time I’ve slept a little better, and also more, cool. Anyway, do you even care about this piece of information? I need to find better ways to make an intro. Nevermind. I woke up soon still, and made it in time for the first show, for a name that I had missed back in Thursday. I think.
Unicorbinot and aluminium paper
Talking about Gnod. I was predicting this type of show would be a bit different from the Thursday one, and although I missed to figure out what the heck happened then, looks like I got that correct. Forget instruments, Gnod got themselves some pedals and effect and started the party just like that. The singer(?), a Tommy Wiseau lookalike, was also tripping balls via his loaded mic, and that’s pretty much what happened during 45 minutes, I take a guess. Sufficient and adequate for opening the swimming-pool concerts, also admirable, given the fact that no PC or Mac was harmed (translation: used) during the performance. The somewhat respectable crowd by the pool was no haphazard.
Gnod. “Man down!”
I’ll be extremely short on Revengeance: violent, fast and furious. Perfect. What were you expecting, it’s grindcore, hardcore, punk, whatever. And they’ve done his job exemplarily.
Moullinex + Xinobi
But hey, the following concert would be the moment of the afternoon, and here they came… Moullinex + Xinobi? Weird, it was time for Bro-X! I won’t lie, this postpone got me a bit upset, because I wouldn’t miss Unicornibot at 6 o’clock (best decision ever, you’ll see), putting at risk watching Bro-X. Only that this duo gave the motto for, what I think, the best afternoon day in Milhões de Festa. This was being lovely, I went to a last swim before drying to leave the pool and shit, all the chakras and stuff were in peace and nothing else in the world would matter than dancing in the pool with some people while Moullinex and Xinobi were rocking out on the turntables. If you must know, it’s an inglory task for the DJs at the Swimming Pool Stage, because why partying at the front of the stage if you can do it in water, by the deck chair, by the towel and anywhere else. But these guys achieved bringing some audience ahead of them, who were also enjoying the great soundtrack of their Summer. I’ll reuse an idea I wrote on the review for MdF: this is so much worthy than some dancing at 3:00 am inside the nearest disco club. Don’t go any further, this is it.
Triangles, everywhere
So here I was, returning to Taina Stage, this time in daylight, while Unicornibot were doing the soundcheck. As soon as everything was in tune, they started immediately rocking, why not? And the crowd loved it (I must say, for the duration of the concert I felt myself being in Galicia, otherwise than Barcelos. Hard number of fans who came purposely for watching Unicornibot). Then they took the usual interval till the concert actually starts, but it was short enough because they had to create the aluminium paper unicorn mask to use during concert, and they did this on stage! I mean best preliminaries ever. Now what really matters, how was the concert?
Porque todo é mellor en Galicia
Incredible. Really, really mesmerizing. I managed to pull some people out of the swimming-pool with me and not even one regretted the switch. The musicianship between these four friends is sure humongous. For the record, they had a lot of misfortunes during their performance – a very unsteady drum plate, a broken guitar string, also the belt attaching the guitar which went off I think – but the outcome in terms of imperfection in the music was NONE. This tireless session of the finest math rock in Earth was assured by some of the most fun crowdsurfing ever (a roadie carrying a little kid from the backstage to the arms of the public and off you go; same with a girl and other staff, delightful), and culminated in a stage invasion (in which I vainly took part of) for the encore. Simply rapturous. A total own. Is there a word for some type of quality impossible to not get noticed? If there is, it’s applicable here.
BRO-X. ATÉ TE APAGAS.
Still bedazzled with the concert I had finished to witness, I came to the bifurcation between the campsite and the swimming-pool and thought “Eh, let’s still see what’s on the pool, maybe Bro-X is still performing”. And guess what, they were! And it was… unreal. Ok, that ridiculous costumes and overly “honest” (obscene) lyrics are an act, but how much of it? Because their behavior onstage was also unbelievable: dirty talking (and shouting) over themselves between songs; one of them deciding that the middle of a song would be the perfect time for a swim(!!!), dropping the mic and diving into the pool; asking for free beer (succeeded); ranting with the PA guy and always postponing the end of the show; well, it was a riot. And I laughed for life. I’ll keep so many bizarre moments, like the song “Karla Puta” a capella (PA guy losing his patience and cutting off the sound, but the song was still played), or a guy making the weirdest dance moves coming up onstage (a friend told me he went to Barcelos on purpose to watch Bro-X, he even had a personalized cap of the band – what the flying fuck?). As you can see, there were much going on during the show, and I can only be thankful for this being my first time seeing Bro-X on concert, because I don’t see this getting any better than this late afternoon suburban flavored.
Number one fan, over here
And so it was the greatest afternoon Milhões offered until today. The cons? Bro-X concert ended at 8:20 pm (the pool should be closing at 8, so you can see how of a mess of a concert that was), making me miss Blues Pills and Lüger. And the first ones were sounding great when leaving the pool, really a shame missing that powerful blues rock imported directly from the 60’s. But hey, we made in time for El Perro del Mar! That would compensate the late arrival.
El Perro del Mar
Not. Huge letdown. Nothing like what I was expecting. Here’s why, in two simple reasons: the band’s line up, with a drummer, bassist, nothing to complain so far, and two macs doing the synths, electronics and stuff. And Sarah Assbring on voice. Only. This isn’t you, EPdM! I mean this band would work in format for MdF, but this isn’t you! And the other reason comes from the previous, which is the music. The new music, actually, from the incoming record. Which I don’t see it as pleasant as I would, here’s why. It may turn out to be fine, and this concert being just bad received, but the letdown and expectation to hear those cheery indie pop tunes is not erasable. Bad start for the night.
Suzi Horn from Prinzhorn Dance School
Reminding you also that the concerts were already an hour late (yeah, El Perro del Mar had a problem with the sound, way to improve things). A very good reason for the hard start Prinzhorn Dance School had. The public wasn’t getting into the raw post-punk songs, and let’s face it, they selected a few boring songs for start. But this would turn out to be a crescendo, and by the middle of it, PDS were rocking as full grown people. Too bad the public keeped on diminuendo, short on patience I think. Also convicted on the idea that all the songs sounded the same, I heard some people saying after the show. Well I understand that, I’m not gonna lie. But there’s something entertaining about this simplicity of songs, on the extremely straight foward bass and guitar, plus the easy drum and the funny accent shouting voices of Prinz, Tobin and Horn, Suzi (hint on the name). It’s kinda the same phenomenon that occurs with reaggae and (some) metal: if you’re not a fan, you’ll think it sounds the same. And let me tell you, the fans loved this one. Weren’t that few, as by the end of it there were only them (I too left, only during the last song. The best of the concert in my opinion. Why did I do it, really? Meh, nevermind).
Connan Mockasin
(Because I wasn’t even spotting for a front space in the following one:) Connan Mockasin. Oh come on! I’m despairing for a rock, dancing, animated, something concert. Well, it will have to wait and don’t blame mr. Connan, this here was plenty enjoyable. I’ll move right to the “last” song, because that was when the concert kicked for everybody I think. Pretty brave to tell the audience “This will be the last song, it lasts 20 minutes” (not the exact words). But it worked! Delightful trip in the psych sounds of New Zealanders valleys and lakes and mountains and archipelagos and flowers and cows and drugs. A crowd obeying to Connan, sitting down and waving their arms to the sound of peace and love and not war. It was magical, okay? The perfect soundtrack for having fun with baloney stuff. For instance, I was playing with a balloon and some people while enjoying the show. It was a great entertainment experience. Little things in life, man. The rest of the concert, and I’m referring to the start now – oddest review ever? – was of this nature as well, but I think it served more as a build up for this great jam. Milhões de Festa, what else?
But fuck finally! Gala Drop not giving a stop for a change and making some prolonged noise for all their concert, it felt even better! Missing no intervals at all. It felt as and experience too, given the few lights (not possible taking good photos for this one, sorry. VICE Stage is somewhat a trouble for pictures, take that already into account), the collaboration with Jerry the Cat, in charge of the congas and upfront on the stage, giving a uncanny outcome to the sound, heavy lifting on synths but also responsible on a strong rhythm. It was a gaze over this year’s album “Broda”, well crafted piece of work and easily shipped for concerts. Good job, boys.
Weedeater and middle fingers #1
Weedeater was filthy. Dirty. Hoarse. Slow and carried away sludge kind of metal. I can’t see this fellas giving more than this, but screw it, I could totally see the entertainment about this, not giving me other option that adhere to it. For this, I’ll say it was the most consensual name for the night. Funny thing when it ended, a lot of people expected an encore which never came. But really expecting, like ten minutes waiting, I witnessed. While being lazy on moving to VICE Stage.
Ghunagangh
Wouldn’t be that lazy if I’d know that Ghunagangh would be the surprise of the day. The situation: one guy, a whitey glassed and caped DJ in charge of freaky, crawling and scary beats, and the rapper, shirtless, heavy body, bald punk, doing flinching rhymes with two micros, one for each hand, both to be put to the mouth. These two gentlemen obvious went on the wave of the horrorcore that nowadays seems to baton the modern, avant-garde maybe hip hop. But what clearly put success into this concert was by no means any lyric content (who exists), but the pose, the streetwise anger, the fear climate the music would already provide, and honesty while interacting to the public. This all became exponential by the last breath Ghunagangh took, asking the crowd to fuck off Rui Rio, Porto’s city mayor crooked son of a bitch (I’m sorry, it’s just contextualization). And it went batshit crazy, everybody giving the middle fingers in the air, as Rey, the MC, would order them, while his pal Ghuna X also came jumping with middle fingers raised. Just rulers of the night, and the great surprise of this Milhões, not only for the day.
Middle fingers #2-and-so-on-and-so-on
But what did miss this Milhões that made a hit in the previous editions? The concert in the middle of the crowd, of course! Make way then, well literally, for Publicist! Although no crowdsurfing or moshing this time, dance moves only. After another troublesome soundcheck, but moving on (cheerful support of the crowd), this Argentinian drummer would make the crowd around him dance insanely to his effects on the drums, voice and others tiny things. Like the tape he would have to play from start to finish for the concert, in exact timing, a priori elaborated. That’s my complaint number one, and the number two is? The fact that the drums aren’t that noticeable on the music. Benefit of the doubt here, ok, the soundcheck was rough, but still I must say, the final result could easily be achieved by other means than the drumming system. You may say it’s a pro in terms of musicality, but the gear isn’t worth all the complications, see soundcheck. Whatever, in what truly matters it was a great show, permitting everybody to do a dance on a spicing soundtrack. Mission well accomplished.
Publicist rocking in mid crowd. Say hi to the Unicornibot’s guitar player!
And to close, since Hoy! was cancelled due “it’s already 5 am and XxXy started now turntabling”, XxXy. Sarah Assbring says “welcome to the group”, as this was another letdown, tiny one however. And by simple means: the remixes were crap and it was sounding like lame house. Here it is. Said bye bye, went to the campsite having a specie of breakfast and went to sleep. Late. After-hours? Well tomorrow I won’t have a problem, enjoy yourselves. Yawn.
Sleep tight.
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Photos by SMF. More photos soon.
bernardo@bolachas.org