Primavera Portastatic

Primavera Sound is a festival in Barcelona with an insane lineup, a million bands on 6 stages or something. the lineup may be so insane in fact that it becomes overwhelming to the point that you remember that you're in Barcelona and maybe you should just go eat some amazing food rather than staggering around the festival grounds trying to see all the amazing bands until 5 AM. Our set was on Friday night at 6.30 PM, so we were early on and then could relax by the Mediterranean, have some fine Estrella beer and check out some music, though some sets i would love to have seen on our night -- Hot Chip, Built To Spill -- were scheduled to begin in the 3 AM range, and we didn't last that long. did get to meet Hot Chip and give them a "Some Small Things You Can't Defend" cd with the cover of their song on it. also got to see some Blonde Redhead, Band of Horses (feat. Matt Gentling on bass!), Beirut, Girls Against Boys. Jim Wilbur and i had time to sing Precision Auto with a Spanish band called Half Foot Outside which was fun. i was worried i'd forget the words since i wasn't playing guitar and singing at the same time (just singing) but i powered through it. Wilbur played a tele which was a first maybe, and the band played the album version of the song perfectly which means about half as fast as we've played it in about 14 years. Pat from Oakley Hall , claiming to be "terrible" on percussion, tore it up on the cabasa with us and despite being on early we had a good crowd, here was the Portastatic set:

Noisy Night
Sour Shores
Angels of Sleep
Drill Me
Sweetness and Light
A Cunning Latch
San Andreas
I Wanna Know Girls
Song For A Clock

the lobby in the hotel was always a hilarious scene. went down for coffee the next morning and saw Steve Diggle talking to Johnny Marr. almost asked Marr "hey how do you play that little thing in 'Ask'? we tried doing it the other night and...etc" but thought better of it.

Saturday night had a fantastic lineup as well but some stomach-related illness, plus an early shuttle to the aeropuerto the next AM kept me from ever getting back to the festival site. i was especially sad not to see longtime favorites The Durutti Column (though i did get a picture of Vini Reilly's suitcase, see above), Sonic Youth doing Daydream Nation, and Wilco, who i heard was great. what a great city, ate well, took a couple dips in the cold and extra-salty sea, hopefully we'll be invited back sometime!