The first grandstand curve of the Interlagos circuit this Saturday became the gateway to Primavera Sound São Paulo, the second edition "created in Barcelona" of a contest that left a good taste in the mouths of more than 50,000 people on its first day. people who filled the historic venue, home of the late Ayrton Senna. Located in the southeastern area of the city, the venue has appropriate infrastructure for large events such as the F1 grand prix or the Lollapalooza festival, which also has Interlagos as its headquarters. And now also the Primavera, which last night continued a race that is expected to be long in the city of 20 million inhabitants, changing engines for speakers.
Three large stages (São Paulo, Corona and Barcelona) hosted the 16 concerts of the first day in a festive and inclusive atmosphere, with a notable presence of LGBT audiences and the majority of thirty-somethings who attended the varied musical buffet open at 12:30 p.m. morning under a blazing sun that did not scare the locals, accustomed to the heat and waiting in the city of a thousand traffic jams. That may be why they appear so calm on a daily basis, a character that transforms when they attend concerts such as those of The Killers, Pet Shop Boys, Cansei de ser sexi or Marisa Montes, protagonists of the first day of the festival. So the people of São Paulo are eager to listen to music, no matter what, because they seem to know all the songs and have fun equally, no matter if it is pop, rock, popular music or whatever they throw at them.
The day started with part of the audience looking for shade while another took advantage of the grass to continue comfortably seated during the first concerts by Àiyé and Getulio Abelha, two Brazilian queer figures who opened fire before a still small audience. It was really hot, and the organization fought it by handing out free water (beer cost 17 reais, 3.20 euros in exchange). Noon was the time for bravery, like Marina Herlop, the only Spanish representative of this edition, who performed at 2:00 p.m. to single-handedly take over the enormous black box on the São Paulo stage. Accompanied by a piano and electronic drums, the singer-songwriter from Olesa de Montserrat presented the songs from her latest album, Nekkuja, before a small but very attentive audience, who applauded every musical turn that Herlop made and attended with interest her precise execution. and elegant, as oblivious to the heat as to a certain cacophony that was caused when another concert began on the Corona stage.
Those responsible for the distortion were Black Midi, a British math rock quintet that was in charge of weaving together a clear guitar thread of the day that had begun shortly before with the full-volume hardcore of Off!, the Californian superband headed by the legendary Keith Morris, a former member of bands like Black Flag or Circle Jerks, who last year presented Free LSD, his first album in 8 years. They were succeeded by Metric, the group led by Emily Haines, who took over to present the songs from their latest album, Formentera II, sprinkled with the pop sound provided by synthesizers. It was before The Hives played, who were in charge of raising the volume again in a concert enlivened by Pelle Almqvist's desire to speak to the audience in tacky Portuguese between songs by the Swedish band. There was so much connection that the vocalist ended the concert by coming off the stage to sing Tick Tick Boom in the middle of the crowd.
On a different wavelength was the American Dorian Electra, a Brazilian group with a live performance that draws aesthetically and musically from Korean rock. Accompanied by two dancers, Dorian performed on the São Paulo stage without instrumental accompaniment, offering a dose of her music, a combination of multiple genres, from pop to heavy metal. Hours later, MC Bin Laden, a favela funky icon, performed in the same space before a handful of attendees in their twenties.
The day continued with Slowdive, shoegaze icons who return to the stage with the release of Everything is Alive, the first album in 6 years by the group led by Rachel Goswell and Neil Halstead. The one from Reading was in charge of performing all the band's songs due to Goswell's vocal problems, a setback that did not discourage the large and grateful audience that listened to the languid melodies full of distortion of the English group. Almost at the same time, Cansei de ser sexi, a very feminine quintet that yesterday competed at home, opened fire, as demonstrated by the affection of those attending the guitar-pop elducorado concert, spiced with images of pizzas and video games of this young group that makes people dance despite having not released a new album for 9 years.
With the spigot of Brazilian music open, one of the most emotional moments of the day and surely of the festival arrived with the performance of Marisa Monte. The diva of Brazilian popular music brought together practically the entire audience at an hour when there was no alternative other than clubbing at the TNT space, the fourth stage of the festival. But you just had to put your ear to it to see that the crowd was not due to the lack of alternatives, but to the transversal love for the artist from Rio de Janeiro, who combined the songs from her new album with hits known and sung mostly as Maria de Verdade. , Ainda bem or Eu sei. Alone with her voice or accompanied by the electric guitar, she dazzled the same audience that hours before had jumped with the punk of The Hives.
Marisa Monte played until nightfall to pass the baton to the Pet Shop Boys, who began their performance with the Ukrainian flag in the background, just like in the last Primavera Sound in Barcelona. In the absence of new material, they once again covered their career, starting with Suburbia in a performance that included the highly praised Domino Dancing, Go West and West End Girls. And from success to success, it was time for The Killers, in charge of closing the day with an anthological concert by this festival band par excellence.
Those from Nevada stormed the stage to offer the public their last concert of the year (as they announced it) with the expected salvo of hits that started with Mr Brightside while Flowers acted as a textbook frontman to the joy of the audience. He made them dance, sing, posed like no one else for the camera and dared to invite a spectator to play the drums in For Reasons Unknown, sending Ronnie Vanucci to play the guitar. Reliable as a clock, the murderers performed well-known songs such as Human, Somebody told me or When you were young before retiring home at eleven at night, an unexpected hour in Spanish festivals, where the headliners do not start to appear. playing many times until late in the morning. This is not the case in São Paulo, as demonstrated by the thousands of attendees leaving with the same calm that they showed throughout the day, either to continue the party in another place or to rest thinking about Sunday, where they await 11 more hours of uninterrupted music.
