Sometimes it’s hard to be objective and unbiased when writing about a festival that is such a big part of your life. Except for two (very) unremarkable lineups that made me stay home, since I was old enough to go to college all my summers involved a trip to Paredes de Coura (and a painful trip back, too). When you’re a kid, they say you’ll eventually get older and boring, in a process they call “becoming an adult”. This usually comes with amazing perks such as ceasing to listen to any new music whatsoever, stopping seeing your (also ageing) friends, having great conversations about changing diapers with your remaining friends (yes, the other couple with kids you always go vacationing with to some shitty beach full of other couples with kids and the odd mother-in-law). Obviously, a multi-day, non-kid friendly, rural music festival such as Festival Paredes de Coura seems like one of those things that are amongst the first to drop from your newfound “adult life”. Except you don’t have to be that person; and is there anything better to remind you of that than going there and finding all your friends in the same place, same month, year after year, all over again? (Well, other than imagining the smell of those diapers.)
Tag: alvvays
Vodafone Paredes de Coura 2018. Photo by Hugo Lima.
Another summer, another missed opportunity to have a vacation somewhere because there’s nowhere else we’d rather be other than at our little paradise of Paredes de Coura, in northwestern Portugal. The festival runs from the 14th to the 17th of August, but, like always, the fun begins way earlier than that, with four fun-packed, free entrance days with concerts and DJ sets right in the center of the small Minho village.
Bolachas Now Playing, 32/2017 (#117):
Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Anthem for No State, Pt. III
Timber Timbre – Les Egouts
The Deep Dark Woods – Fallen Leaves
Torres – Helen in the Woods
Cut Copy – Black Rainbows
Alvvays – Plimsoll Punks
The Lemon Twigs – Why Didn’t You Say That?
BadBadNotGood – Confessions Pt. III
Jon Batiste, Leon Bridges, Gary Clark Jr. – Ohio
Hiss Golden Messenger – Harder Rain
Hiss Golden Messenger – Gulfport You’ve Been On My Mind
Courtney Barnett, Kurt Vile – Continental Breakfast
Rodney Crowell – Tobacco Road
Willie Nelson – Mind Your Own Business
Twain – Little Dog Mind
The Texas Gentlemen – Superstition
Conor Oberst – Southern State
Eilen Jewell – The Poor Girls Story
Holly Macve – All I Have To Do Is Dream
Bolachas Now Playing, 26/2017 (#111):
Alex Cameron & Angel Olsen – Stranger’s Kiss
Alvvays – Dreams Tonite
Chad VanGaalen – Pine and Clover
L.A. Salami – That Ain’t Me
Deer Tick – Jumpstarting
The Texas Gentlemen – Pain
Jesse Malin – Meet Me at the End of the World
Japanese Breakfast – Diving Woman
The War On Drugs – Pain
The Wild Reeds – Not An Option
Kacy & Clayton – A Lifeboat
Margo Price – Weakness
This is The Kit – Hotter Colder
Micah P. Hinson – Oh, Spaceman
Juanita Stein – Florence
Juanita Stein – It’s All Wrong
Lucy Rose – Moirai
Jamie Saft & Iggy Pop – Everyday
Nadine Shah – Holiday Destination
Kelela – LMK
Chelsea Wolfe – Vex