Day 43, Barcelona –0km

Lunch with the crowd, then siesta.

image

• Angel Witch (6:45 PM)
metal… I went poster shopping. I found the music normal, as metal goes, and the few lyrics just dumb.

• Current 93 (8:15 PM)
fabulous, which was a surprise. Matt and I both fully expected this to be awful, but then, what do you know? Absolutely riveting performance and musical quality, surreal vivid lyrics… yes, oh yes!

image

• Money For Rope (9:00 PM)
Well, I don’t even remember them. Either they were super forgettable, or we just missed them.

• Deerhunter (9:25 PM)
We were surprised to really enjoy this. We only went because the name rang a bell and they were on one of the biggest stages, but they were really engaging. I’m writing this the next day, though, after my big festival find and before Mudhoney, so… I can’t remember enough to say.

image

• Drive Like Jehu (9:35 PM)
boring 90s garage/grunge. vocals mimicked every other singer of period, genre. Blah. We saw a bit of them before heading to Mordor (the furthest stages) for Deerhunter, and I’m glad we left them soon.

• Wolves As Friends (10:00 PM)
kind of adorable, but not gripping. I keep trying with these young Brazilian bands, but they’re just not working out.

• PJ Harvey (10:35 PM)
perfect. Except that she didn’t talk to us at all, so I felt sad and lonely. But hero-worship I did. Current stuff is very much music with a message, and I heartily approve.

image

• Sigur Rós (12:00 AM)
really good! We needed a break after Ms Polly Jean, so we wandered off instead of waiting the couple of minutes for SR to start. I’m glad we made it back before they were done, because it was lovely.

• Julia Holter (12:50 AM)
sounded nice, but we would have to give it a non-gig listen, and know what the lyrics are, to like her. We only listened for a few minutes before going back to Mordor for SR.

• Moderat (1:40 AM)
sigh. I’d heard SO much about them, but no. the first song was positively awful, poppy croony nonsense. the second seemed promising, and everyone got really excited, but it just didn’t go anywhere at all. matt asked if I needed to hear more, and I said no, and we left.