More ammunition for the Supergirls party at Primavera Sound

BarcelonaScheduling a headliner like Sabrina Carpenter at midnight makes the Parc del Fórum and the marine platform a hive of activity in the afternoon and early evening. For example, having an Aperol Spritz (7 euros), eating a burger (12 euros), a kebab (9 euros), or a pizza margherita (11 euros). Withdrawing money from a Revolut ATM. Dinner seated on the terrace of the Estrella Damm restaurant. Lie down on some pillows at Levi's & Bear. Get your hair done courtesy of Schwarzkopf. And pay attention to how many languages are spoken at the Forum (English above all others). Staying in the place until the headliners start and leaving once the desired performance has finished, which is a way of experiencing the festival as if it were a macro concert. And I remove (2025), their first album after five years without any new releases, and the attitude on the Revolut stage was that of three musicians eager to play. It was the Primavera Sound supergirls' way of joining the party. In fact, they came out defiant, stomping their feet and with a gestural ferocity that isn't as evident in their pop-rock. The album, which will be released at the end of June, gives conceptual meaning to the live show. On the screen at the back of the stage appeared slogans of affirmation, or of enough, such as "I've stopped thinking I'm the problem," "I've quit," "I've quit isolation," "I've quit your shit," or "I've quit relationships." This coincided, of course, with the song RelationshipsSatisfied with the positive response from the spectators who filled the marine platform, they repeatedly reiterated their love for Barcelona in front of a largely non-Barcelona and non-Catalan audience. This is a constant at Primavera Sound. However, it's appreciated that the foreign bands are mindful of the local minority.

Before Haim, in the central part of the Forum, a refuge for the less young festival-goers, there were two very remarkable performances. On the one hand, on the Cupra stage (the amphitheater), there was Waxahatchee, the project of American Kathryn Crutchfield: solid and luminous southern country-folk with melodies that Sheryl Crow would approve of, as is the case in the remarkable album Tigers blood. And very much celebrated by the audience, also when they invited MJ Lenderman to play, who will perform on the same stage on Saturday.

On the other hand, on the Amazon stage, The Hard Quartet, the supergroup formed by indie rock legends such as Stephen Malkmus (Pavement), Matt Sweeney (Skunk and Chavez), Jim White (Dirty Three) and Emmett Kelly. It must be said that there wasn't a large audience, and what was there seemed to have lived intensely the youth of indie rock. Some looked as if they had said three years ago that they would never return to a festival. However, the supergroup works by defying nostalgia, the four many together on the immensity of the stage and simultaneously offering precision and commendable electric pulls.

The day had been opened by two bands from Barcelona, ​​​​Heal and Tetas Frías, on the Schwarzkopf and Trainline stages, respectively, while the audience tried to protect themselves from the sun. Heal made their sometimes abrasive indie rock sound convincing, and Tetas Frías, who hung a Palestinian flag on the stage, went straight to the point with guitar-driven, drum-machine-driven punk-pop. "We have 40 minutes to play all the songs we have," they warned. The contrast to the austere stage of the afternoon was provided at Revolut by the Japanese project Yoasobi: each musician perched on an individual platform, like characters in a platform video game, and surrounded by inflatable figures of pure fantasy, like a SpongeBob SquarePants of J-pop.

Sabrina Carpenter, octopus and sequins

If on Thursday the omnipresent color was Charli XCX's fluorescent green, on Friday the number of T-shirts and hats of the brand multiplied among the public. cowboy pink in tribute to Sabrina Carpenter, the headliner of the day. Before the start of the show, the esplanade in front of the Revolut stage was almost bursting at the seams with people taking positions to see, or at least glimpse, who has become one of the biggest pop stars for all audiences (in fact, quite a few teenagers could be seen among the crowd). The concert began with a news-style video welcoming the Barcelona audience to a show full of retro details and color. Particularly relevant songs, such as Manchild, a song that Carpenter released on Thursday and that she sang for the first time at Primavera Sound. The American also found time to do a cover ofIt's raining men.

In a show where aesthetics were very important, from the lights to Carpenter's short gold sequined dress, the concert was not quite as good as it was due to the sound being too low at times, especially considering the huge crowd. However, the closing act with Please please please and Espresso, the two most popular singles from the album Short & sweet, have allowed the concert to end with a pop party flavour and sparkle.