{"id":194,"date":"2018-08-22T18:07:08","date_gmt":"2018-08-22T18:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bolachas.org\/testes\/?p=194"},"modified":"2020-02-01T23:17:47","modified_gmt":"2020-02-01T23:17:47","slug":"review-vodafone-paredes-de-coura-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bolachas.org\/?p=194","title":{"rendered":"Review: Vodafone Paredes de Coura\u00a0\u201818"},"content":{"rendered":"

What can we put into a list of \u201cthings that do not happen often\u201d when talking about a music festival? What about this: there\u2019s this festival – our favorite festival, for reasons that extend beyond the lineup – that, faced with another<\/i>\u00a0cancelled Bj\u00f6rk gig, decided to go for the jugular and announce, in her place, giant\u00a0\u201cstadium indie\u201d act Arcade Fire, thirteen years after playing there in the 2005 edition while touring Funeral<\/i>. Nothing could take the spotlight away from them, right? But imagine there was this kid from the Lisbon suburbs that self-produced his albums at home and played his first gig only six months before this festival. Could he relegate one of the most sought after bands of our world – whose show was quite spectacular, at times – to the footnotes of our festival review?\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Playing for a completely packed Vodafone.fm stage on the first night of the festival, after a lukewarm, absolutely forgettable headlining The Blaze show in the main stage,\u00a0Conan Osiris<\/b> and dancer Jo\u00e3o Reis Moreira revealed themselves to really be\u00a0a force of nature – although a divisive one, exactly as we expected to. Even those who watched from a distance as the bizarre show went on will remember, in ten years, that they witnessed the pinnacle (we think!) of the invulgar rise to fame of two complete outsiders that already inserted themselves – and rightfully so – into the mythology of the festival. Just check out Canal 180\u2032s video of the happening. Earlier that afternoon, Conan Osiris had a huge opportunity to promote himself in a secret show organized by Vodafone, but decided to prop up his proteg\u00e8 Sreya<\/b> instead to a room full of press and festival goers. That\u2019s what a proper idol does, guys.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Marlon Williams. Picture: Hugo Lima \/ Festival Paredes de Coura.<\/i><\/p>\n

But they were not the only highlight of the first night of Vodafone Paredes de Coura 2018. Earlier on, Marlon Williams <\/b>was raising hell as he and his band threw hit after hit from the much lauded Make Way for Love<\/i> – oftentimes with a ballad, with a more rock-ish number shaking up things every now and then – and we can tell this is the start of yet another loving relationship between a songwriter and the Portuguese public, following the footsteps of Kevin Morby<\/b>\u00a0who seems to play the country every single summer. He left the FC Porto shirt at home (maybe he thought fans of the local club would kick the shit out of him if he did), but a few of his fans didn\u2019t. I might have been one of them, but don\u2019t let SC Courense fans know about this.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Pussy Riot. Picture: Hugo Lima \/ Festival Paredes de Coura.<\/i><\/p>\n

But the highlight of the third night of the festival had to be the mythical …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead<\/b>, playing one of the essential indie rock albums of the 21st century in its entirety, Source Tags & Codes<\/i>\u00a0in the Vodafone.fm stage plus two straight to the point tracks off their back catalogue: Worlds Apart<\/i>\u2019s\u00a0magnificent\u00a0\u201cWill You Smile Again?\u201d and set closer\u00a0\u201cA Perfect Teenhood\u201d off Madonna<\/i>, igniting a riff-hungry packed tent. Earlier on, Lucy Dacus<\/b> presented her sophomore album for the first time in the country with a more than competent early afternoon show, certainly collecting a few hundred new fans along the way – expect her to keep visiting us in the next few years. Imarhan<\/b>\u00a0were already killing it in the smaller stage as Dacus finished her set. I was lucky to see them alongside Blonde Redhead and Snail Mail at Paradiso Amsterdam a few days after Paredes de Coura, and what a show it was. Later on, Slowdive<\/b>\u00a0sounded, once again, crystal clear, but the magic of their first reunion tour seems to be wearing off; fortunately, the songs off their latest, self-titled album, are a breath of fresh air in an otherwise unremarkable show for such a late hour time slot. Fortunately,\u00a0Skepta<\/b>\u00a0has turned up the volume (except during that 15 minute set interruption as overly enthusiastic people were allegedly throwing shit on stage) to set us up for the bizarre world of the umpteenth – and probably the most entertaining – coming of Russian activist collective Pussy Riot<\/b>. Thank God they and their band seem to have sold their guitars and bought turntables, as their punk rock past was mostly a schadenfreude generator: this Slav-heavy hard bass suits them way better, and the projections were hilarious at times. Yes, this is what punk can be in 2018 and there\u2019s nothing wrong with it: Internet memes can sometimes be more effective than meaningless shouted angry words.<\/p>\n

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Shame. Picture: Hugo Lima \/ Festival Paredes de Coura.<\/i><\/p>\n

Back to Thursday. Shame<\/b> were our top pick for the day, and although we would prefer them in the cozyness of a small stage, the main stage wasn\u2019t certainly an obstacle to a young band that\u2019s on their way of establishing themselves, alongside IDLES, as one of the British powerhouses of angry, anthemic, anti-establishment rock music. And, well, who doesn\u2019t love a band that takes themselves so seriously to the point of taking the stage to the sound of the great Vengaboys? On the other hand, Japanese Breakfast<\/b> was a bit too lukewarm for our taste. Another case of a good songwriter that cannot make it in the 20:30 time slot on the second stage at Paredes de Coura, our music festival equivalent of a decent football team having to play Stoke City away on a rainy Tuesday night (Frankie Cosmos<\/b> would suffer the same fate the following day, as Waxahatchee, Algiers or Cigarettes After Sex did a few years back). At night, Surma<\/b>\u00a0tried to battle this history presenting her beautiful, intricate recent album Antwerpen<\/i>, and we cannot say she failed, although her delicate music certainly fits a seated, proper theater instead. On the main stage, Fleet Foxes<\/b>\u00a0were competent, without shining too bright. But we can blame both the difficulty of capturing the complexities of the Seattle folk band and delivering a consistently good quality sound to a natural amphitheatre, and the usual troublemakers that think buying a festival ticket entitles them to having loud conversations ten rows from the stage. Jungle<\/b>\u00a0seem to be only a little more than a one hit wonder, but then we remember that one hit is the massive \u201cBusy Earnin\u2019\u201d and everything\u2019s alright with the world once again.<\/p>\n

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Dead Combo. Picture: Hugo Lima \/ Festival Paredes de Coura.<\/i><\/p>\n

The most emotional moment of the festival had to be Dead Combo<\/b>\u2019s incredible show in the last night. A much deserved prime time show for the best band coming out of Portugal in the 21st century in a delicate time for one half of the founding duo, as Pedro Gon\u00e7alves appears to be struggling with disease; we really hope this is not the last we see of him. Mark Lanegan, who\u2019s featured in their latest record Odeon Hotel<\/i>, has joined the six-piece outfit for part of the gig, his contributions being way more interesting than anything he has done on his countless Portuguese shows over the past few years. A huge version of \u201cLisboa Mulata\u201d, towards the end of the set, was the highlight of this show. It\u2019s not like we merely want more of them in the future, we need<\/i>\u00a0Dead Combo alive and kicking. Just a couple of hours earlier, Big Thief<\/b>\u00a0have confirmed their status as the best indie band of the past couple of years. Yes, this is a big statement, but anyone who\u2019s familiar with their work knows it\u2019s the truth, even without main guitar player Buck Meek, who\u2019s focusing on touring his solo debut album. Listening to their masterpiece\u00a0\u201cMasterpiece\u201d should be enough, but as Adrianne Lenker et al.<\/i> launch into tearjerker\u00a0\u201cPaul\u201d, we know we\u2019re witnessing something special. She\u2019s surprised she\u2019s playing for so many people; we\u2019re certain they\u2019ll be playing for a crowd like this daily on their next summer festival tour. Later on, Arcade Fire<\/b>\u00a0brought the big guns in the beginning of an euphoric show (\u201cEverything Now\u201d,\u00a0\u201cNeighbourhood #3\u2033,\u00a0\u201cRebellion (Lies)\u201d, and\u00a0\u201cNo Cars Go\u201d) before dwelling into less interesting territory, interrupted here and there with well received incursions into less played material (pre-Funeral<\/i>\u00a0deep cut\u00a0\u201cCars and Telephones\u201d and Neon Bible<\/i>\u2019s\u00a0\u201cIntervention\u201d). But we had to wait much later for a spectacular, ecstatic \u201cReflektor\u201d, before going into an encore closed with the very first song they played, in that same stage, 13 years before: sing-along favorite\u00a0\u201cWake Up\u201d. Between hardcore fans and people they lost along the way through their journey from an unknown (but hot prospect) Canadian indie band into a huge outfit capable of filling up arenas and headlining massive festivals like Rock in Rio, few could say they were not entertained.\u00a0But could they do it against an unknown 20-something kid from the suburbs in a cold, early evening 20:30 slot in Paredes de Coura?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What can we put into a list of \u201cthings that do not happen often\u201d when talking about a music festival? What about this: there\u2019s this festival – our favorite festival, for reasons that extend beyond the lineup – that, faced with another\u00a0cancelled Bj\u00f6rk gig, decided to go for the jugular and announce, in her place, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[134],"tags":[899,234,77,219,892,897,905,902,900,560,445,906,893,903,896,898,904,901,153,358,894,895],"class_list":["post-194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live","tag-arcade-fire","tag-big-thief","tag-conan-osiris","tag-dead-combo","tag-festival-paredes-de-coura","tag-fleet-foxes","tag-imarhan","tag-japanese-breakfast","tag-jungle","tag-kevin-morby","tag-lucy-dacus","tag-marlon-williams","tag-pdc18","tag-pussy-riot","tag-shame","tag-skepta","tag-slowdive","tag-surma","tag-trail-of-dead","tag-vodafone-paredes-de-coura","tag-vodafone-paredes-de-coura-2018","tag-vpc18"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bolachas.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bolachas.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bolachas.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bolachas.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bolachas.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=194"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bolachas.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1247,"href":"https:\/\/bolachas.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions\/1247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bolachas.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bolachas.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bolachas.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}