{"id":448,"date":"2016-09-04T21:37:38","date_gmt":"2016-09-04T21:37:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bolachas.org\/testes\/?p=448"},"modified":"2020-09-14T20:42:23","modified_gmt":"2020-09-14T19:42:23","slug":"vodafone-paredes-de-coura-2016-our-highlights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bolachas.org\/?p=448","title":{"rendered":"Vodafone Paredes de Coura 2016: our highlights"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Focusing on the concerts only would never do justice to a festival like Vodafone Paredes de Coura. This foreword is, therefore, an ode to the friendliness of the locals, who year after year warmly welcome the thousands of city-dweller \u2018invaders\u2019 in the decade of the \u2018touristophobe\u2019, when suddenly became cool and trendy to talk shit about those fucking loud\/quiet\/poor\/rich tourists who came from somewhere else to enjoy the beauty of our two main cities. \/rant<\/i><\/p>\n

Is there any other time of the year where you can see so many people enjoying themselves in total harmony with their surroundings and everyone around them? I swear to God I didn\u2019t notice a single sad person around in the six days we spent in Paredes de Coura. Please, never take this away from us. (Bonus treat: the festival grounds were much more walkable this year after last year\u2019s sold out edition. Congrats!) (Photo: Miguel Oliveira<\/a>)<\/i><\/p>\n

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10. PORTUGAL. THE MAN<\/p>\n

They weren\u2019t even in our top 10 of artists to see in the festival, but a band who decides to jolt out a hilarious cover of \u2018Dayman<\/a>\u2019 in the middle of their set along with a completely unexpected \u201cDon\u2019t Look Back in Anger\u201d deserves a mention. Sure, we could do without those jams near the end and with more older songs, but at least they were entertaining – even for those who weren\u2019t fans of the band. (Photo: Hugo Lima<\/a>)<\/i><\/p>\n

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9. PSYCHIC ILLS<\/p>\n

The last time we saw them – last June in the Best Kept Secret festival in Hilvarenbeek, The Netherlands – they seemed to get their groove on pretty early in the set. This time around something was lacking, but they still managed to entrance all those who were willing to be enchanted by the warm, hypnotizing sounds of the NY quintet. (Photo: Miguel Oliveira<\/a>)<\/i><\/p>\n

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8. MINOR VICTORIES<\/p>\n

We could barely hear Rachel Goswell\u2019s vocals for the first couple of songs (although we could see her green feathers) but when the problems were sorted out we were hooked. The dreamy, machiney sounds of \u201cA Hundred Ropes\u201d and \u201cScattered Ashes\u201d were the highlight of the first day of the festival, making us forget about the hideous football match we witnessed a couple of hours before. (Photo: Hugo Lima<\/a>)<\/i><\/p>\n

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7. RYLEY WALKER<\/p>\n

Same as Psychic Ills – nothing wrong about the concert itself, as his songs are perfectly suited for sunbathing in the green hill of Coura at 6pm – but, having seen him live a couple of months before, something was lacking here. And it wasn\u2019t the terrifying heat of the 2pm sun in the tent he was playing at Hilvareenbeek. What we really missed was his keyboard player, who helped adding some more layers of complexity to his already complex compositions. Not that his trio, composed of two of the most brilliant musicians of the Portuguese underground, was a particularly bad combination, but there\u2019s some nuances that are present in his recordings that you just can\u2019t reproduce without a full band. (Photo: Hugo Lima<\/a>)<\/i><\/p>\n

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6. JOANA SERRAT<\/p>\n

What a beautiful show by the Spanish singer-songwriter. Accompanied on stage by a full band, Joana Serrat\u2019s concert was arguably the biggest surprise of the festival, especially given the fact that only a handful of people knew her beforehand. \u201cCloudy Heart\u201d and especially \u201cBlack Lake\u201d, off her latest record, were the highlights of a concert we\u2019re waiting to be replicated in a nice theater soon. If you live in Portugal, that could be by mid-September at the Festival para Gente Sentada<\/a>. Highly recommended! (Photo: Hugo Lima<\/a>)<\/i><\/p>\n

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5. WHITNEY<\/p>\n

As the first couple of songs soared through the main stage we knew Whitney would be the next love affair with Portuguese audiences, something that happened many times before with bands that played the festival during daytime: Arcade Fire, The National, The Tallest Man on Earth\u2026 And don\u2019t get us started talking about their cover of Dylan\u2019s \u201cTonight I\u2019ll Be Staying Here With You\u201d. We\u2019re already expecting them to come back to the country every six months. (Photo: Hugo Lima<\/a>)<\/i><\/p>\n

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4. KEVIN MORBY<\/p>\n

\u2026Like Kevin Morby, who already has two more shows scheduled for November in Espinho (Audit\u00f3rio de Espinho) and Lisbon (Vodafone Mexefest). His live band keeps increasing (drums + guitar combo in his first show in Aveiro, a three piece at NOS Primavera Sound, and a four piece in Paredes de Coura) and so does his repertoire of beautifully crafted songs. So wide that he doesn\u2019t even need to cover Bill Fay songs anymore, he doesn\u2019t even have time to play all his best stuff. Old favorites \u201cHarlem River\u201d and \u201cMiles, Miles, Miles\u201d (which made this guy cry<\/a> in front of everyone) were still the highlights though. What a wonderful time to see a star like this being born and grow over time – if he keeps this consistency over the next few records, which we\u2019re sure he will. (Photo: Hugo Lima<\/a>)<\/i><\/p>\n

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3. THEE OH SEES<\/p>\n

Are there really any more words to describe Thee Oh Sees live shows? Two drumkits, two guitars, dust-inducing chaos and people flying everywhere. We thought maybe they couldn\u2019t reproduce the frenzy of their show in the smaller stage back in 2014 in a bigger stage, but boy, they could. Now excuse me while I\u2019m trying to get all this dirt off my nose. (Photo: Hugo Lima<\/a>)<\/i><\/p>\n

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2. THE TALLEST MAN ON EARTH<\/p>\n

Six years ago he was all alone on the big stage, sporting a shiny Gayngs t-shirt and playing the yet unreleased song \u201cThe Dreamer\u201d (arguably the best song he ever wrote) for a few hundreds of devotees. Now, after a couple of successful records, Kristian Matsson (who every day looks more and more like the Portuguese football manager Andr\u00e9 Villas-Boas) can finally afford a five piece band, and he\u2019s deservedly playing at a respectable 9:30 time slot for thousands of people, many of them shouting or whispering the lyrics, like those songs were part of themselves. And, like the last time he was around, he also played a yet unreleased song<\/a> that will surely be the quintessential Tallest Man on Earth song from now on. (Photo: Miguel Oliveira<\/a>)<\/i><\/p>\n

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1. LCD SOUNDSYSTEM (Photo: Hugo Lima<\/a>)<\/i><\/p>\n

No surprise: they promised us the best hour and a half of our year, and they delivered. Sure, there\u2019s no time for any improv and everything\u2019s planned to the milimeter, from the light show to the setlist itself, but hey, who cares? What a fucking triumphant band. See you in five years – don\u2019t spoil us with a show like this every summer, we don\u2019t deserve it\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Focusing on the concerts only would never do justice to a festival like Vodafone Paredes de Coura. This foreword is, therefore, an ode to the friendliness of the locals, who year after year warmly welcome the thousands of city-dweller \u2018invaders\u2019 in the decade of the \u2018touristophobe\u2019, when suddenly became cool and trendy to talk shit […]<\/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":[1212,560,1238,1460,359,1459,1461,137,185,577,397,358,1458,329],"class_list":["post-448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live","tag-joana-serrat","tag-kevin-morby","tag-lcd-soundsystem","tag-minor-victories","tag-paredes-de-coura","tag-portugal-the-man","tag-psychic-ills","tag-review","tag-ryley-walker","tag-the-tallest-man-on-earth","tag-thee-oh-sees","tag-vodafone-paredes-de-coura","tag-vpc16","tag-whitney"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bolachas.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448","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=448"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bolachas.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1749,"href":"https:\/\/bolachas.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448\/revisions\/1749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bolachas.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bolachas.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bolachas.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}