Barcelona, come on now, people, make a stand

Published on Sun 6 Jun 2010

I just had a few slices of a Chicago deep pan pizza and now I can barely move. I was meant to be doing some laundry but the hotel reception doesn't have change so I'm going to leave it until I get to New York tomorrow. Chicago is a great, great city - I didn't really have any expectations, but if I had have they'd have been exceeded. I'll be sorry to go. That said, the bars don't close until 4am - I don't think I could live here...

Anyway, more of that another time. Primavera started on the Thursday and we used the second day of our open top bus tour passes to get to the site, getting exciting facts along the way. We picked up our wristbands and went for some tapas and beer at a cafe just outside the front gate, and just as the beers arrived I got a tap on my shoulder and turned round to see Nick, who you may remember from the Way Out West before last. In case you don't, here's a video of him playing minigolf in a very wet Gothenburg.

Turns out he's living near Barcelona now, having moved to Bogata and back, as you do, and had decided to go to the festival at the last minute. I'm really starting to believe in my theory that life is a soap opera and there are only a few hundred people in the world that aren't just extras. I wish they'd give me some better storylines.

They have an unusual beer system where you have to buy tokens in advance which you then exchange at the bar - it does speed things up at the bars slightly I guess, but the queue when you first get into the site is pretty annoying. It also makes it far too easy to keep track of how many drinks you've had. We got there eventually though, and a big wave of excitement hit me as we went down to what was called the Rayban stage this time, the likes of which I've not felt since Buffalo Tom played "Tangerine" on that very stage two years ago.

The first band up were The Wave Pictures, who I've been a bit disappointed with the last few times I've seen them, but they supplied the most moving moment of the whole thing. Their drummer seemed a little bit drunk (I think it was a big gig for them) and they were struggling to hear themselves over the sound from one of the other stages (though it was fine for us) so when it came to "Now You Are Pregnant" which he sings and is my favourite of theirs he was fairly obviously a bit worried. Which meant he really, really went for it and it very nearly had me in tears.

"But I love the back garden at my parents' place,
And I love the view out of my Glasgow window,
And I love waking up on the floor of a flat in New York,
And you don't know any of these things."

After watching a moderately forgettable set by The Fall on the main stage we went back to watch The XX, who I'd heard of but not heard any of. It's pretty atmospheric stuff and they grew on me as they went along. The drummer/keyboard player was good to watch as he did some impressive multi-tasking. They also managed to shoehorn a surprising number of 'X's on the stage. I'd see them again if it was free...

Mike and I went off to see a bit of Wild Beasts, who I'd heard good things about and were alright, but not as exciting as the revelation that you could buy beer in litre glasses, without tokens.

We caught a bit of Broken Social Scene on the way to see Pavement, but I didn't get into them at all. Pavement on the other hand were great, I've somehow managed to not hear a great deal of them, but I'll try and sort that out when I get home. I did think they sounded a bit like Wilco, so I don't really get why they're 'indie' and Wilco are 'country'. Both are 'really good' either way.

Nick and I then went to watch Fuck Buttons, which was awesome, but my hearing still hasn't quite recovered. Half of Cambridge ended up standing directly behind us in the crowd. I wasn't as surprised as I might have been. It could've all carried on for a while but thankfully I got a phonecall from Dave saying that the bus queue was really long and did I want to get a taxi, so I went outside, where I got a phonecall from Emily saying that her and Dave were getting the bus after all. I got a taxi anyway and beat them back so ner.

Best stop there - got to be up comparatively early in the morning... New York New York!