Photo: Ben Jablonski
"Go out and fucking fall in love with someone tonight," beams Beach Slang frontman James Alex, finishing off their early but blistering set on the Firestone stage. With the night set to be capped off by LCD Soundsystem, Tame Impala, Air, Explosions In The Sky and more, there's a positive tension in every corner of Primavera Sound 2016. Love is in the air.
Playing their first European festival show since their initial demise in 2011, LCD Soundsystem receive every bit the deserved heroes' welcome. The main arena is packed out as far as the eye can see, as pods of friends huddle together arm in arm before the motorik beats of opener 'Us V Them' beckons James Murphy to the stage. A rapturous rave erupts as we holler back the words we've been waiting five long years to sing: "The time has come."
Absence may indeed make the heart grow fonder, and tonight is an envigorating reminder of that the world has been missing since LCD left us. 'Daft Punk Is Playing At My House' lands like the call-to-arms classic it has become, 'I Can Change' shimmers with its sideways pop grace while the unholy trio of 'Tribulations' leading into 'Movement' into the runaway insanity of 'Yeah' showcase just how perfect LCD were when they first arrived on the band. They are more than just a band. They are a celebration and a revolution.
There's not a dry eye left in Barcelona for the aching, elegiac perfection of 'Someone Great', before the acerbic tribute to ageing hipsterism with 'Losing My Edge' now carries a whole new irony when performed by a band so on top of their game. The Bowie-driven beauty of 'Home' sends Barcelona into an extended swoon, showing that dance music can indeed have sentiment and soul as well as groove, before the mini-epic of 'Dance Yrself Clean' and summer-defining pure perfection of 'All My Friends' inspire that very love we were hoping to find. There's no more fitting lyric for such an occasion than "if the sun comes up and I still don't want to stagger home, it's the memory of our betters that are keeping us on our feet."
Sadly no new material was performed, but the goodwill that surrounds them and the familiar immaculate form that they're on suggests that they're onto something great - and that they will finally enjoy the mass, universal success that they've always deserved. Their time has come.
LCD Soundsystem played:
Us v Them
Daft Punk Is Playing at My House
I Can Change
Get Innocuous!
You Wanted a Hit
Tribulations
Movement
Yeah
Someone Great
Losing My Edge
Home
New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down
Dance Yrself Clean
All My Friends
Warming up for them on the opposite H&M Stage, Tame Impala pull one of the largest and most swelling crowds of the day to show them how they've become a headline-worthy force of nature - delivering kaleidoscopic and triumphant rush of life-affirming psych-soul brilliance. Their live spectacle is a beauty to behold, and on stage their sound is so 'complete' and opulent that it totally overcomes you.
The collective haze of Barcelona losing themselves to 'Let It Happen', 'Elephant' and 'The Less I Know The Better' is a memory that shall endure. A powercut forced them from the stage temporarily, but the day had already been won. You need to see this band live, at all costs.
The chic dance-noir of Air made for the perfect sunset hour display, before Explosions In The Sky proved to be a surprise highlight of the day. Vast and vivid sonic landscapes are painted with the effervescent flourishes of their cinematic post-rock, showing a level of musicianship and symbiotic understanding between all members so unparallelled, it's impossible for your eyes to ever leave the stage. A triumph of sound and vision.
Visibly humbled by the masses who gathered before them, Daughter but the scale of the show does nothing to impinge on the raw-nerved intimacy and vulnerable of their sound. It's gossamer light to the touch, but only blooms when its humanity is allowed to reach out and touch so many.
Early arrivals were in for a treat. Beach Slang's Americana slacker punk sounds something quite close to what we imagine Springsteen would do if he were absolutely baked and set alight - carrying that decadent rush of so many long youthful summers lost but never wasted. We'll allow them to soundtrack this one at least. This is music to fall in love to.
Primavera Sound continues today with performances from Radiohead, The Last Shadow Puppets, Beach House, Savages, Beirut and more. Check back at Gigwise for the latest reviews, news and photos from Primavera Sound 2016, as we report from Generator Hostel, Barcelona.
