We had a great weekend, particularly Friday night. In no real order, here’s my binary review of the bands we saw this year:
Thursday
The Melvins – 0
The Smashing Pumpkins – 0
Dirty Three – 1
The White Stripes – 1
Elvis Perkins – 1
Comets On Fire – 1
Friday
The Fall – 1 – truly brilliant
Maximo Park – 0 – truly awful
Blonde Redhead – 0 – pretty forgettable
Beirut – 1
Hot Chip – 0 – abysmal
Modest Mouse – 1
Billy Bragg – 1 – great fun
How Dare You! – 1
Ginferno – 1 – also they have the best name in the world
Dj Yoda – 1 – but leave the records on for more than 15 seconds next time
Bonde Do Role – 1 – utterly mental
Kid Koala – 1
Saturday
Patti Smith – 1
Sonic Youth – 1 – fantastic
Wilco – 1
Architecture in Helsinki – 1
The Good, The Bad And The Queen – 0 – really disappointing
Buzzcocks – 1 – awesome
Jonathan Richman – 1 – more fun in the AuditorÃ
Ovni – 1
Roll on Benicassim!
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* for those of you as yet unfamiliar with the binary review system, allow me to explain it: it’s a brilliant system which I invented which allows you to rate something on a sort of ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ basis. You could use the words ‘Hot’, ‘De Puta madre’ or ‘Funkalicious’ instead of ‘Yes’ (or the number ‘1’, which is the most classical form of the binary review).
Hit the South…uh!
FIB’s going to be brilliant!
I’m very jealous of the line-up you had at Primavera, it looked awesome. FIB seems to have a bit more of a dancy edge to it this year – never a bad thing – can’t wait.
Yeah that will be cool. I see they’re persisting with Rufus Wainwright too.
Personally, I’m very much looking forward to ostentatiously napping through Muse.
Ha ha ha
muse are gonna rawk you poindexter
Nah I’m going to be in that tent watching Rufus with Joe, quietly weeping.
Or sweating, with some other men.
You’re nuts … the Melvins rocked except for the last rambling bit. And they had a decent sound guy, somewhat. Not to be said for the Smashing Pumpkins which I hate anyway. I especially liked how the speakers cut out in the middle of their second song and they continued with the monitors going. WTF were the sound guys doing? White Stripes were good, except of course the sound was terrible. I’m not even an audiophile and I can tell you this. Guess you missed Mike Patton … you didn’t miss anything. The last two times he’s come through Barcelona have been disappointing. 67 euros for a one day pass and you’d expect more.
TBH, I don’t know much about the Melvins. I certainly dug the two drummers thing, but it sounded a bit industrial to me. And their lead singer looked a bit like Pedro Almodovar. I too hate the Smashing Pumpkins… they have not improved one iota since I last heard their dire moaning, ten years ago.
Billy Bragg, The Fall, Jonathan Richman, Bonde Do Role, Sonic Youth and Patti Smith were my highlights. You’d be better off getting a whole weekend pass next time… if you get it early, it’s only about €100
guess i’m not a gamblin man like you. i decided to go the morning of.
i’d never pin the Melvin’s as industrial, and i’d recommend seeing them in a small beer-soaked club like the bottom of the hill in SF, not a macro festival. i really hate industrial music too, strange you say that. what’s industrial about the Melvins?
I don’t really know… just droning guitars, indecipherable lyrics and loud drums. Wait, that sounds like my favourite music! Well, you know more about them than I do, obviously. Just wasn’t my thing.
That Perkins boy could sing, though. And his Dad was Psycho.
i love loud drums, guess that’s the reason i like them. too bad i missed mr perkins
Did you ever get around to listening to Royal Trux? They’re different.