In 2014, Primavera Sound had quite the case of the falling rain. This year, no such thing. The weather is the best kind you can imagine. It’s not too hot (as in, everyone is fanning their heads off for other reasons than style), but it doesn’t cool down that much in the evening (so why people are still carrying backpacks the size of a medium-sized whale is beyond me as jeans, a shirt, and a jacket will get you through). It’s the kind of thing you expect in Barcelona, though after last year I’m scared to get my hopes up too high.

On the third day, Julian Casablancas & The Voidz start it off at the big Primavera stage with a big bucket of noise. Actually, surprisingly, though there is a lot of sound, and it is rock (sometimes with a dash of gothic, sometimes with a dash of hard), all the different instruments are clearly distinguishable. The multiple guitars have their little riffs and solos going on, the drums drive it foreward, and there is a host of auxiliary sounds to add some variety to the rock on display. Also, it is fun to see all the characters on the stage, they do give you something to look at, and they are playing it up like those '70s bands of yore.

The only downside is that Julian Casablancas is pretty much inaudible. I don’t mind a bit of distortion on the vocals, but the distortion is screwed up as much as the volume on the mic is screwed down, causing the lyrics to be tough to decipher. As I’m not the biggest fan of loud rock, the moment the band slides into a rendition of ‘Little Girl’ I’m well chuffed. That song, that appeared on the Dangermouse & Sparklehorse album with Casablancas on vocals, is well ace, and one that I never had thought to hear live.

After Casablancas, Patti Smith is going to play through her entire Horses album on the Heineken main stage. And my goodness, she’s lighting it up. Her voice is super strong, the band is tight, and the songs on that iconic album are both brilliant as well as totally American. And though the format kind of fits that American counter culture movement of the time, the message still resonates as vibrant as ever. Not in the least because Patti Smith still seems to genuinely stand behind it. There are some absolutely fabulous moments in this set, like the reprise of ‘Gloria’, the epic rant against everyone controlling “us”, and when she, spoken word poetry style, runs through a list of names of talented people dear to her who have died (this song is for them). A brilliant set by someone still full of life and with plenty to say (and meaning it, too).

Now, for something fun, Belle & Sebastian play the ATP stage on the back of their lovely new album Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance. Certainly new songs like ‘Partyline’ and ‘Perfect Couples’ fit in superbly with the older material, including hits like ‘The Boy With The Arab Strap’ and closer ‘Get Me Away From Here, I’m Dying’. The band does a great job oozing having a good time, and to highlight that, they even invite people on stage to do some dancing with them. The band is in fine form, the songs are catchy and lovely, and even live they manage to exhume that typical “twee” feel that this band has. The only downside is that on this stage, sometimes the sound cuts out. You know that thing where you are playing, and then part of the sound disappears because there’s a faulty cable there? That, a couple of times. Nothing against the band though, who play new and old material to the point of fun. When later walking the festival site, I hear two girls behind me singing the line "Get me away, I’m dying" on repeat, a sign that it was memorable for the right reasons.

The Church are playing their brand of post-punk/rock on the Ray-Ban stage. They do a great job setting the atmosphere, and frontman Steve Kilbey brings the theater and the emotion to the songs. There’s still a rawness there, which makes you don’t mind the fact that maybe not everything is equally pitch perfect. A performance like on ‘The Disillusionist’, which starts with raging guitars, but which ends with just Kilbey’s vocals, is so emotional and so raw that one cannot help but be mesmerized by it. Ariel Pink on the Pitchfork stage shortly after still doesn’t manage to engage me live. I love some of the album stuff, but live it just sounds like a bucket full of noisy rock where you can’t distinguish a dancing line from a fuzzy ball of hair. Fooled me twice, I’ll skip the third time I think.

On that same stage later The Juan Maclean gear up to tackle their New York city style of house music. Juan Maclean is donning a glittery blue sweater, whereas Nancy Whang looks as cool as ever at center stage. What comes next is dance heaven. Cold sounds are juxtaposed by the characteristics of house music, and they perform that so incredibly tight that there’s no other option than to dance. The sound is so clean, so pristine, and there’s so much tuneage there that the only possible result is an hour long house-a-thon that you just have to dance to. There’s a good mixture between older songs, including ‘Every Little Thing’ from way back when, and the newer tracks, like ‘Runaway’ and the incredibly catchy ‘A Simple Design’.

The band still ends with ‘Happy House’, but if you have a weapon like that in your arsenal it would almost be a crime not to hit the crowd with it. Not to mention that they don’t just play the album versions of the track, but tweak them, make them longer, and make them even more suited for a dancefloor with a live audience. The drums are different than when I last saw them, the beat sounds harsher, though whether that is the set-up, the new drummer, or an executive decision by the band thinking it might enhance the live dance feel I don’t know. As I’m still dancing as hard as the first two times I’ve seen them, quite frankly, I don’t care. About anything, at this point. Perfect dancing escapism, and one of my favorite live acts around, despite the infrequency of their live tours. A must see, must dance, must love act.

What do you mean I look like someone in my Thirties! Sure, I just asked the American woman next to me if she was retired (travelling a month through Europe like that), so it might have been a not-so-veiled shade, but still, where’s the love man? I’m going to Barcelona, for a festival, that’s where the love is supposed to be at! Nah, just kidding, it was lovely talking to her on the plane on the way to my festival of choice, Primavera Sound in Barcelona.

The Wednesday already sees some treats, completely free of charge to boot! There’s a bit of rock, with Albert Hammond Jr. (yes, he of The Strokes) doing his thing with his band. A few minutes in, we know where the rock-yet-cleanliness of that famous band comes from, with Albert Hammond Jr. doing the punk/rock thing layered and noiseless. As in, I can hear the multiple instruments and their riffs, and it doesn’t all collide into this wall of noise where you don’t even know what’s going on (and the festival will have a few of those, let me tell you). Naturally, he plays some of his work, though he throws a nice little cover in there as well, to keep things fresh. It’s always good to be dancing to some of that clean punk while asking yourself If you have ever fallen in love with someone you shouldn’t have fallen in love with.

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark is the band to end the Wednesday on the ATP stage, and boy, these geezers still know how to get the party on. Sure, if you don’t like your '80s synth pop cheese you might have a hard time enjoying yourself. But I always have a hard time keeping the fun in, and the Spaniards in front of me don’t even have a clue on how to do that. Which, I reckon, is a good thing. This is all out fun, or “electro-pop” as they call it, admitting that it’s not going to be pretentious or artful, and they’re proud to be wearing that badge. So in the audience we’re dancing, on stage they’re dancing HARD, and everyone is smiling because it is just this slice of catchy fun. They end with ‘Electricity’, bookending a string of hits and the fun that goes with them. They even play a new song! Madness.

On the first real festival day it is time for the “little guys”. The two main stages I leave alone for now, instead focussing on some newer names I haven’t had a chance to see live yet. One of them being Viet Cong, whom I now don't really regret having missed prior. Where Albert Hammond Jr. played his rock/punk cleanly, here everything sounds like the same fuzzy ball of noise with vocals I’m not quite sure I need to hear again. The band on the stage nextdoor has way more distinguishable instruments. I have seen Mdou Moctar before, a band from Africa whose sound is more Western blues than you’d expect at first glance. They sure know a thing or two about rhythm and playing that blues guitar, with a smittering of funk in there too. But when I saw them first time around I remember that, at one point, they gathered so much momentum that the crowd, during one particularly funky blues track with ace rhythm guitar, started to dance collectively. This time around, whilst still a good listen, that didn’t really happen.

Kelela is next up on the same stage, and she is quite the presence. Not only that, but she has quite the voice as well, and over beats and space she uses that to great effect. The instrumentation is an Apple computer producing trap-like beats that I never really particularly care for, nor do I think this is going to be the end of her musical progression. Not because I don’t like it, but because I do think there is some room to get more out of that (though a complete change in the kinds of beats she uses I’d totally be in favour of, but that’s personal of course). Her voice, certainly, isn’t the thing that is keeping her from anything, and her stage presence isn’t either. The music does lay down the atmosphere though, giving it a sense of cool. Certainly she is one to keep an eye on, whether it is going to be for the next big thing or that cult act that is exactly right for that particular niche.

At the small H&M Pro stage Rebeka is up next, and their brand of synth-pop is the kind I like. The female vocals are nice and deep, and they fit the kind of atmosphere (slightly melancholic) they want to exhume. The beats and synths, in the mean time, are smooth and clear, and they give you every opportunity to be dancing. Which, luckily for me and unfortunately for them, is not really a problem as there’s quite a bit of room on the floor left to get down to. Other people’s loss I reckon, as the band has songs. Nicely structured, catchy dance songs. A track like ‘Melancholia’, for instance, or the relatively new ‘Breath’. The two are getting busy behind their hardware, with the female part of the duo doing some dancing mixed with some karate kicks to get some energy going for the crowd to play off of. I’ve seen them before once, and I do fancy their sound quite a bit, and live they don’t disappoint here in Barcelona.

Moving to the way bigger Ray-Ban stage, you immediately know you are in the presence of some acts that are enjoying some mainstream success. Which is a good thing for them, as they produce some mainstream sounds as well, so where else will they get their success from? Chet Faker is up just before midnight, and when he launches into a solo edit of a track the girl behind me casually drops a Just the best song everrr. Chet Faker does know how to play, mixing jazzy sounds and lines with a more mainstream core sound to keep everyone hooked. His vocals, too, are nice, reminding me a little bit of Jamie Lidell (in terms of sound, not in terms of all the other stuff Lidell manages to do with his vocals). A track like ‘Gold’ is a good example of the mass appeal, with the way the beat works, which is very nu, I find. Though I won’t be refreshing my browsers when tix for his next gig go on sale anytime soon, I do see the quality here, and it is nice to see how all these jazz sensibilities creep into his set.

Jungle closes out my day on that same Ray-Ban stage, and here, too, you have this mainstream slick all over it. Attracting a rather terrible mainstream crowd, I might add, who care more for having fun despite the music, and at the cost of people who might actually want to have fun to the disco Jungle is putting out there. That disco is the pop radio version of disco. Super slick, super smooth, and really easy on the ear. Which on one hand is a good thing, on the other hand it doesn’t really add oomph, cheekiness, rawness, or plain fun to the sound. And live, moreso than on album, it felt as if the pace stayed within a rather narrow range. There’s also not really any on stage craziness, even though disco does tend to lend itself to a bit of showtime. For disco (though the omission of the word “pop” is troublesome to me I find), this is a rather vanilla show. Though, as evidenced by the mass amount of people out here, no one says no to vanilla.