As I was at Primavera Porto last week, most of my listening was live, so I'll just list the bands I saw and my reactions to them:
Derby Motoreta's Burrito Kachimba
(Yes, really!) Rather good. Lots of Asian psych, flamenco and classic rock
Penelope Isles
Never heard them before, above-average indie rock, not bad at
all.
Kim Gordon
Didn't really take off for me. Every time her set seemed to be gaining momentum it'd peter out into a morass of self-consciously arty-farty noise, and the people I was with seemed to agree.
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Utterly Godlike, and the best thing I saw all weekend. One of the few musicians I can think besides Bowie and Prince who's equally talented at being both an artist and an entertainer.
Tame Impala
Way surpassed my expectations as the only album of theirs that I like all that much is their first. Watched it from the top of the hill rather than getting closer to the front as they have a lightshow that rivals early Hawkwind's and you could see it more clearly from there.
Shellac
Pretty good but felt like an incongruous venue for what they do, especially as I'd always read that Steve Albini hated playing festivals.
King Krule
Pleasantly surprised the he drew a large crowd, given how offbeat and difficult to categorise his music is. Very solid set, similar to the one he played at End of the Road last year.
Beck
Reasonable but would have enjoyed it more if he'd had a full band rather than just a drummer and a guy triggering samples. Felt a little karaoke-ish at times.
Pavement
Well chosen set that featured a mixture of classics and more obscure album tracks, and my friends all thought it was the weekend's highlight. Whilst I wasn't quite as euphoric as them - possibly due to having been the only one that saw the original band back in the day - the parts that gelled were highly enjoyable.
Dry Cleaning
Very good, as ever, although possibly more suited to an indoor venue like the Forum where I saw them in March.
Dinosaur Jr.
Pretty good. Glad Lou Barlow and J.Mascis have patched things up as Barlow's manic stage presence was a big asset. Pretty much a greatest hits set without a great deal of post-reformation material, but whilst what I've heard of the latter sounded quite good I had no complaints about that.
Interpol
I'm only familiar with their first album, but despite them not playing much that I'd heard it was a solid set, although there were occasions when Paul Banks seemed to be straining to hit the notes. I read from a friend on Facebook that they cancelled the date they were due to play in London two days later at the last minute, so I suspect illness (possibly Covid?) may have been a factor there.
Joy Orbison
Pounding DJ set which mostly consisted of the kind of stuff I remember people referring to as nosebleed techno back in the 90s (basically proto-gabba but not as fast), although with some pleasing drum'n'bassy interludes.
Squid
Did their usual arty post-punk / post-rock / drone-rock / noise thang, and were decent enough to thank the relatively few people who decided to watch them rather than Gorillaz.
Meanwhile, the only new release I've bought so far this month is The Utopia Strong's "International Treasure", which sounded marvellous on the two occasions I've been able to listen to it so far.
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