Madrid (EFE) time of the first day of Primavera Sound in the capital.
There was no room for a soul in La Riviera when Damon Albarn (vocals) Graham Coxon (guitar), Alex James (bassist) and Dave Rowntree (drums) hit the charts with the song “St. Charles Square”, a preview of his next album, charged with an energy that has filled the 2,500 attendees until the end of the recital.
They are the ones who managed to reserve a ticket when the organization announced this concert by surprise, unusual for a band that in recent years usually performs in large stadiums, and which was also the format expected to welcome some 40,000 people in Arganda del Rey.
“There’s No Other Way”, soon heated up the atmosphere with a distorted “Popscene”
“It’s not Primavera, but it is”, Albarn blurted out as consolation in his presentation to the audience: aware of his status as the only great surviving band of the day, the vocalist has demonstrated with jumps, contortions and throwing glasses and spitting that he has not abandoned the condition of a hooligan present in some of his interactions with the public: “Thank you, which in English means grassy ass,” he joked.
The repertoire, which has continued with “There’s No Other Way”, soon heated up the atmosphere with a “Popscene” distorted by the effect of a megaphone celebrated by the applause to the beat of an audience in which age, although mostly she was in her twenties in the front row, rising steadily until she was over forty and beyond towards the end of the room.
It seems that motives did not exist when “Tracy Jacks”, the fourth song of the day, made glasses of beer fly, which the band returned to the public to, immediately afterwards, continue with the first acoustic foray of the night with “Trim Trabb ”, which has unleashed outrageous messages.
“Because of the weather, we have several problems, the first is my tension, which as it continues to rise is going to make me jump on you,” Albarn harangued the attendees, who have been fed by the band’s electrical energy and They have returned it with an implication that only allows the privacy of a place where the space between artists and public dissolves.
The ultimate madness has been confirmed with “Parklife”
The definitive madness has been confirmed with “Parklife”, which has unleashed the first ‘pogo’ of the day, answered by the group with a shake of guitars and a game with the microphone cable as a cowboy lasso, to continue with the held “Coffe and TV”, where the crowd has drowned out the sound of a voice, which, at that point and with the adrenaline reaching dizzying heights, turned into howls.
Those who were once great Britpop idols have shown their prevalence with a “To the end” that confirmed their exceptional familiarity with the audience, leaving behind scenes like Albarn trying on an assistant’s cap in the front row: “You are our family and I hope you feel like yours”, the singer declared excitedly between songs to face the last third of the concert.
“Song 2” has inaugurated the great rampage with the wildest ‘pogo’ of the night: when the song ended, Blur, who seemed to have returned to their stage where they filled closed joints with floors soaked in beer, have undertaken the penultimate attack with “This is a Low”, after which they abandoned the tables to beg for the final climax.
The multi-core “Girls and Boys” with the acoustic classic “Tender”
The choruses of “Oe, oe, oe” from a crowd that knew they were privileged to attend a concert as coveted as it was unusual, have given way to the return of the band, which chained the multi-song “Girls and Boys” with the acoustic classic “ Tender”, to which the attendees have added an extra chorus sung out loud at the end.
The second and last foray into their new album came from the hand of “The Narcissist”, which has already become one of the group’s leading songs to close with “The Universal” as the finishing touch to a night where communion between band and public has made the British go down in the history of La Riviera.
The concert is part of the ill-fated first day of Primavera Sound in Madrid (preceded by the free performance yesterday by Pet Shop Boys) which, after its cancellation due to bad weather, plans to hold dozens of concerts on Friday and Saturday in the City of Rock from Arganda del Rey.