Review: NOS Primavera Sound, Porto

NOS Primavera Sound in Porto is a compact version of Primavera Barcelona. The bands and artists performing are cherry-picked from the Barcelona lineup, so when that is released, festival goers can spend a few happy days or weeks trying to predict who will be playing Porto and as much time again whinging online because the band they want to see isn’t doing both events.

Unlike UK festivals, the gates don’t open until around 4.30pm and the music continues until at least 5am. This means festival-goers can have a full day sightseeing or wandering around the city before the first band is on stage.

2019’s line-up passed the Bechdel test with flying colours with over 50% of the artists playing being women. This was a conscious decision by the promoters and they should be applauded for it, as it is still, sadly, a risk to curate a festival with a high proportion of female artists.

Thursday

Opening the Super Bock Stage, Montreal band Men I Trust played a strangely relaxed set of understated and subtle indie-electronica with guitars, sometimes lazily described as trip-hop. Men I Trust are musically warmer, more imaginative and less soporific than the best/worst/all trip-hop. They used hypnotic but never bludgeoning beats to slowly seep their songs into the audience’s consciousness, at times it was quiet, reflective music but it held the audience’s attention.

Walking past the SEAT stage, Jarvis Cocker was giving his all in suitably predictable Jarvis fashion. It didn’t sound that different to Pulp; it was a bit pedestrian and dull and it didn’t make non-Jarvis fans stop on their way to see MorMor, who was an entirely different proposition. The Canadian artist attracted an ever-increasing crowd with his dreamy, ennui-filled, soulful indie-pop. Though to classify his mixing and matching of genres as indie-pop is a little narrow, his effortlessly soulful voice soared underpinned by pitch-perfect guitar and keyboards and subtle beats, and until a rain squall lashed down you could hear a pin drop.

Next up was Danny Brown whose set of whip-smart, quick-fire and hip-hop thrilled and amused in turn. Anyone who uses ‘Iron Man’ by Black Sabbath as their intro music is clearly a confident performer and Brown certainly was that. He and his DJ smashed out all the big tunes including ‘Grown Up’, and ‘Ain’t It Funny’ and the set highlight ’25 Bucks’ got the crowd bouncing almost as much as Brown was. His energy must have been infectious, as evidenced by Let’s Eat Grandma. The acclaimed electro-pop duo sang, swapped instruments, performed teenage girl bedroom dance routines and lifted their crowd. Whether the fun they had on stage detracted from the emotional maturity of their lyrics is possible, but that’s what listening at home to an album is for.

Headliner Solange brought a full arena production with a striking set, numerous dancers, well thought out lighting and supremely talented band to the festival. Yet something was lacking, not as the idiot English boys behind us kept shouting ‘You’re not Beyonce’, more that her music was unsuited to a past-midnight headline slot.

Friday

Friday was kicked off by woman of the moment Aldous Harding on the main stage. Korean post-rock band Jambinai, however, were the perfect gritty party starters. Their wall of sound tempered with traditional Korean flute, drums and violin was quite something. Intense but not alienating, the band held the crowd’s attention whilst focusing entirely on what they were doing until the end of the superb set where they, and we, breathed a collective sigh of relief and moved on to see what else was on offer.

There was a lull as Mura Masa cancelled due to issues with radar at Porto Airport and although we could hear Courtney Barnett from where we were sitting, the realisation that she still couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket meant that it was time to dot around the stages. Sons of Kemet were as you’d expect exciting and energetic, an acquired taste but they got the crowd buzzing. Shellac were, as ever, Shellac, enough said. And Liz Phair played a workmanlike set of traditional AOR to a crowd of mega-fans who knew the words to most of her songs. Her sheer experience and longevity meant that she was able to connect with the crowd and ignore the slight sound-bleed from other stages.

The mainstage headliner was Colombian reggaeton superstar J Balvin. Like Solange he brought a high-quality show to the festival; dancing clouds, great projections and a striking set. His crowd went wild for him, every between-song utterance was greeted with cheers and everywhere you looked, even in the bars, people were dancing. But if reggaeton wasn’t your thing you could go and see Interpol instead. If you really had to.

Or you could go and see what was happening on the Bits Stage, a warehouse twice the size of Motion in Bristol, complete with bars, astonishingly good sound and great lighting and projections on site. What was happening was Portuguese techno DJ Violet playing a clever and innovative techno/electronica set that pulled the club kids in and kept them there along with the old school techno heads. Yes, you could work out when the drop was going to happen but it was still exciting when it did.

Saturday

The final day of the festival was gloriously sunny and relaxed and this was reflected by the laid back approach to performing by Snail Mail. Songwriter Lindsay Jordan may not be re-inventing sincere indie music but her unself-conscious performance, chatty, engaging and sometimes singing a little off-key was charming.

After the ear-shredding provided by Australian band Amyl and the Sniffers, London artist Tirzah was a blessed and glorious relief. With long term friend the composer Mica Levi and singer and musician Coby Sey on stage and nothing else, Tirzah let her post-R&B songs do the work for her. And work well they did, fabulous vocals, laid back beats and emotive melodies, perhaps a little reminiscent of FKA Twigs (when she’s not doing expressive dancing to the detriment of her singing), Abra and Kelela the crowd was spellbound throughout.

The biggest crowd of the weekend was to be found at the main stage for Spanish megastar Rosalía. Every song, every minute of in between chat and most of her dance moves and poses were greeted with roars of appreciation that could be heard across the whole site. Her blend of flamenco pop, folk and pure pop was infectious, beautifully staged and even in passing when you really had no idea (if you spoke no Spanish) what she was saying you felt that she was sincere.

A jaunt to the Bits stage to check out Jackie, a techno DJ who curates some seriously cult events in Lisbon and across Europe, was welcomed by many. Jackie’s set started off with a small crowd and by the time we had to leave to check out the headliner the club was almost full. The set was intense and Germanic but not cold and motorik, it had a Kraftwerk edge creating familiarity whilst bringing new sounds to the genre.

If we hadn’t wanted to go and see Neneh Cherry, we, along with most of the crowd would have been happy to stay for hours in Bits. A consummate professional despite some serious issues with flights and travel Neneh Cherry was on-stage, on-time and proceeded to delight the packed crowd with a fantastic set starting with ‘Manchild’, moving onto a moving ‘Seven Seconds’ and her newer material which stands tall alongside her classics and ending on the joyous high of ‘Buffalo Stance’. Her skills as a songwriter cannot be underestimated, she’s smart and wise and unafraid to show it and her warmth as a performer pulled her adoring, cross-generational audience in. Her voice was on point throughout as was her between-song chat, she was completely sincere and authentic and the crowd lapped it up.

Erykah Badu is a legend. But that didn’t give her carte blanche to be 45 minutes late. The audience was pretty restless by the time her band meandered onto the stage, and when she finally joined them, she was greeted with a few half-hearted cheers and in some cases a high degree of ‘What on earth is she wearing’? It has to be admitted she still has a fantastic voice and presence when you could see her in the dreadful lighting but lateness and self-indulgence and 60 seconds on ‘On and On’ and we were off.

Primavera Porto is a brilliant festival, diverse, well organised, beautifully constructed and on a lovely site. If you are tired of UK festivals and can’t face a behemoth like the Barcelona edition then try it, because you will be pleasantly surprised.

Read More: Review: Shindig Festival 2019

Lead image courtesy of NOS Primavera Porto 2019