Estrella Damm Primavera Sounds – Barcelona, Spain
Event: 5/23/08 – 6/1/08
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Currently in its eighth consecutive year, Estrella Damm Primavera Sound’08 brought together a broad and eclectic line-up of more than a 150 artists stretched across thirteen stages of music.

Evil Monito presents an entertaining recap on Barcelona’s biggest outdoor festival, the Primavera Sounds. Our coverage includes mini show reviews and brief Q&A responses from a sundry cast of music lovers who came out in droves to celebrate at the Parc Del Fòrum

Portishead

Portishead was certainly a very welcome addition to the festival. The band’s first comeback circuit since a 5-year hiatus, in which their lead singer, Beth Gibbons, had engaged in her own solo project. The band’s previous albums were a seminal force during the trip hop period and had indelibly changed the 90’s music industry.

Now that Portishead is back, they’ve recently arrived to Primavera and graced their expectant fans with their recent album, Third.

Being one of the main draws of the festival, Beth Gibbons kept busy and played two shows, the second of which drew in a maxed-out crowd in a 450 capacity auditorium, providing her earnest fans, who were lucky enough to snag a ticket, a very intimate performance. With pitch perfect, crystalline sound, the band peppered their set with their earlier trip hop classics from Dummy and their eponymous album, as well as showcasing the more industrial sounds of their latest, Third. The audience went crazy over “Machine Gun,” a great track from that album.

One of the best shows of the entire weekend and very mellow and special affair, that saw an otherwise disconnected Beth Gibbons, inviting the whole audience on stage in an Iggy pop style invasion during the track “We Carry On.

http://www.portishead.co.uk/

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Name: Renske van Dongen

Age: 31

Where do you come from: Amsterdam but based in London

What do you do: mac technician

Favorite record at the moment: Dirty Projectors – Rise above

Favorite Website: www.3voor12.nl

Favorite band at Primavera: A place to bury strangers (I have a dozen more that I can call favourite, but this was an eye opening wall of sound that blew my mind)

What the festival means to you: the highlight of my year! Always so many GREAT acts, beautiful location and lovely people.

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Lightspeed Champion

Myspace also featured their own small showcase tent/shop on the festival grounds and true to the website, it proved to be one of the best places to hear new music and meet great people.

A shining example of this was the act, Lightspeed Champion, who played a brief solo show before his main stage appearance.

Lightspeed Champion a.k.a Devonte Hayne, who is signed to Domino Records (home of Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand), played almost all from his latest album Falling Off the Lavender Bridge which had elements of indie folk, country, pop and rock. Hayne is no stranger to playing a long, self-indulgent track and plowed through his bittersweet and humorous love ballads, marking a serious transition from his far former band, the London-based post hardcore outfit, the Test Icicles.

With his epic numbers, “Midnight Surprise” and “Galaxy of the Lost” doing the rounds on youtube, I’m already looking forward to seeing how his sound will develop, and judging by his busy touring schedule, it appears I’m not the only one taking notice.

www.myspace.com/lightspeedchampion

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Name: Martin Allais

Age: 29

Where do you come from: The Jungle

What do you do: Swing

Favorite record at the moment: Plantasia of mort garson

Favorite Website: www.youtube.com

Favorite band at Primavera: Shellac

What the festival means to you: Party, Pizza, Jagger shots and random meeting between the bands.

Your website: www.togetheronemoretime.com

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De La Soul

The legendary De La Soul had been involved with the Universal Zulu Nation movement founded by Africa Baambata and their sound is synonymous with classic hip-hop. Their set on the opening night of Primavera kept the partying rocking into the late hours.

Having seen them several times on this very stage, I can honestly say they never cease to impress. A great performance, although with such an extensive back catalogue to dip into, I was slightly disappointed that they didn’t dig a little deeper on their set.

However they ran through some great hits like “Buddy”, “A Roller Skating Jam Named “Saturdays”, “the magic number” as well played for the crowd some singles from their most recent, “It Ain’t All Good” and “Oooh”. Finishing up with “Tzsoweezee” from one of their most underrated classic albums ever, Stakes is High, was a nice treat. Even Public enemy’s Flavor Flav showed his appreciation for De la by jumping on stage for that number. There was something nice and reassuring about seeing all those hard working legends sharing one stage at a time.

http://www.myspace.com/delasoul

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Name: James Pearse

Age: 33

Where do you come from:
A small village near Oxford, England

What do you do: Music consultant.

Favorite record at the moment:
Voice Of The Seven Woods (Twisted Nerve, 2007).

Favorite Website: I don’t really have one.

Favorite band at Primavera:
Voice Of The Seven Woods.

What the festival means to you:
Good friends, aching legs, crappy beer, long queues, good bands, bad bands, no taxis, undercooked pizza slices, wristbands, being surrounded by sheep in H&M clothing.

Your website:
www.finderskeepersrecords.com

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Les Savy Fav

Its charismatic front men like Tim Harrington that gives this band plenty of drama both on and off the stage during the Primavera gig. Their set played like a pumping soundtrack of pop meets punk meets indie-rock sensibilities, to the backdrop of a party where the punch has been spiked. Les Savy Fav put on one hell of a show and Harrington let his wardrobe do all the talking that night.

The group showcased their most recent release, the first in 6 years, “Lets stay friends” as well as a few classics from they’re earlier days, reminiscent of the times when they had first formed in 1995. As the night proceeded, Harrington had the majority of the rapt audience sitting languidly on the ground while they took down the tempo of their set a notch. Only to cause a near-perfect riot when, in a split second decision, they decided to bring the energy back up again. The band was sheer entertainment from the moment the first chord struck to the thundering crash of the last symbol.

www.lessavyfav.com