Arcade Fire, Queens Of The Stone Age rock Primavera Sound

Friday 30th May 2014 by Andrew Trendell | Photos by Primavera Sound/Dani Canto

Tags: Queens of the Stone Age, Arcade Fire, Primavera Sound Festival

The first main day of Primavera Sound 2014 kicked off in style with massive sets from Arcade Fire, Queens Of The Stone Age, St Vincent, Disclosure and more performing at the festival last night (Thursday 29 May, 2014). 

Despite a torrential downpour the day before and reports of cloudy weather, the weather relented for a day of glorious Spanish sunshine along the Barcelona coastline. 

An early highlight of the day came from Girl Band, whose blend of QOTSA-esque rhythms, post-punk riffs and the maniacal screeching of The Fall mixed to present them as one of the UK's most promising new bands as they stormed two sets on the Heineken Hidden Stage and Vice Stage.

As the Spanish sun shone down, Follakzoid provided the perfect soundtrack over on the ATP stage with some blissed-out, free jamming, before Midlake pulled one of the first major crowds of the day with a hit-packed set on The Sony Stage. 

Warpaint delivered a woozy set of hypnotic rock from their two albums, drawing heavily from their brilliant self-titled 2014 album and even playing a wonderful psych-rock cover of David Bowie's 'Ashes To Ashes'. What followed can only be described as one of the most infuriating festival clashes of recent memory, as St Vincent performed at the same time as Future Islands and Neutral Milk Hotel.

All pulled a deservedly huge audience, but we opted to see St Vincent. Taking to the stage just after nightfall, Annie Clark filled the huge Sony Stage with her arresting persona with a truly stunning show that would set the benchmark for the rest of the weekend. With a fully-choreographed performance, she drew from across her impressive catalogue to mix wild firecracker guitar skills, haunting romantic vocals and mechanical dance moves to deliver a set worthy of a headliner. She looks every bit the icon. It was awesome. 

Next up, on the opposite Heneiken Stage, Queens Of The Stone Age wasted no time in proving why they're more than worthy of headlining Reading & Leeds Festival this summer. Opening with 'You Think I Ain't Worth A Dollar, But I Feel Like A Millionaire', before bursting straight into 'No One Knows', their set was a consistently classic-packed explosion of hard rock and bravado that kept Barcelona dancing well into the night. 

With an electric persona and dry, wicked banter, Josh Homme shone as the ultimate frontman. If they play anything like that this August, then QOTSA will go down in Reading & Leeds history as one for all time. 

Queens Of The Stone Age played:
You Think I Ain't Worth a Dollar, but I Feel Like a Millionaire
No One Knows
My God Is the Sun
Burn the Witch
Smooth Sailing
In My Head
Feel Good Hit of the Summer
…Like Clockwork
If I Had a Tail
Little Sister
Fairweather Friends
Make It Wit Chu
I Sat by the Ocean
Sick, Sick, Sick
Go With the Flow
A Song for the Dead

As queues trailed down the block, it seemed as if all of the continent had flocked to Barcelona's Parc Del Forum for Arcade Fire, as the space outside the Sony Stage was quickly transformed into an unmoveable mass of screaming faces and flailing limbs.

Opening with the title track from 2013's Reflektor, Win Butler and co charged through a true carnival of colour and sound, in a career-spanning and epic 21-song set that marked them as true Glastonbury-headliner material. The whole show was a confetti-laden sing-along, and true celebration of a band in their prime and reaching true greatness.

Arcade Fire played:
Reflektor
Flashbulb Eyes
Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
Rebellion (Lies)
Joan of Arc
Rococo
The Suburbs
The Suburbs (Continued)
Ready to Start
Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
Neighborhood #2 (Laika)
No Cars Go
Haïti
Keep the Car
Running
We Exist
Afterlife (w/ 'My Body Is a Cage' intro)
It's Never Over (Oh Orpheus)
Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
Normal Person
Here Comes the Night Time
Wake Up

After seeing what were essentially three consecutive headline sets, we were then treated to two more as Disclosure sent out the packed out main arena into a frenzied rave with a brilliant light show and astounding performance from tracks from their massive debut album 'Settle', and 'Metronomy' kept Barcelona swaying and howling into the early hours on the utterly beautiful ampitheatre-esque Ray-Ban stage.

Primavera Sound festival continues today with appearances from Pixies, The National, Haim, John Grant, Slowdive, Loop, Slint, Factory Floor, Jagwar Ma, Jenny Lewis, The Twilight Sad, Sharon Van Etten and many more. 

Below: The best bits of day one of Primavera Sound 2014 in photos