A stone’s throw from the Mediterranean Sea, Primavera Sound Barcelona feels like its own waterfront citadel, existing only for indulging in live music from around the globe. This year’s edition featured pop giants like Chappell Roan, Charli XCX, and Sabrina Carpenter, but also indie vets like Waxahatchee, Beach House and LCD Soundsystem. Nocturnal revelers could catch the Dare or Brutalismus 3000, or DJ sets by Danny L Harle, Frost Children, or DJ Koze. There really was something for everyone—if only it was possible to see it all.
Thursday, June 5
While the Mediterranean sun kissed the Primavera crowd, an intimate bunch gathered indoors in the pitch black confines of the 501 Club, transfixed by Barcelona experimental duo Dame Area. Producer Viktor Lux Crux and vocalist Silvia Konstance made the modest venue feel more like a guerilla punk show in a Berlin basement than a new festival stage. Awash in red light, Dame Area mostly played songs from their latest album, Toda la Verdad Sobre Dame Area, a bracing fusion of synth-punk, industrial, and the kind of dizzying polyrhythms you’d hear in Chicago footwork. When she wasn’t wailing on her drum pad in sync with Lux Crux, Konstance shouted and yelped into the mic, jerking her body back and forth to the beat. Dame Area’s savagely produced electronics make you feel like you’re inside of a machine that’s gone haywire, but Lux Crux and Konstance aren’t detached button-mashers; Konstance couldn’t keep from pogoing into the pit and communing with the crowd.