The sun-kissed port of Lisbon was the venue as the Portuguese capital hosted one of the Iberian Peninsula’s largest music festivals.
Phoenix were the first band I managed to catch on the main stage, with the French group’s visual presentation leaving a mark. Backed by a giant mirror, it took a few songs for the production to show its majesty in what was a marvellous display. However, you couldn’t help but think that they would have been far more suited if they had been playing in the tent. Highlights included the new single ‘Ti Amo’ and old favourite ‘Rome’.
As the sun went down, The xx were next up in what was a sumptuously glossy set. The three-piece now have more strings to their bow, with a greater emphasis placed on percussion, lighting and overall production. Jamie Smith even managed to get one of his solo hits into the mix in the form of ‘Loud Places.’
Sussex’s finest Royal Blood then lit up the main tent with their huge, hulking riffs delivered with a snarling swagger. It is still remarkable to think that it is only two instruments generating the noise. Mike Kerr’s bass guitar sound in particular, filtered through octave pedals, gives a full-blooded guitar sound.
Headlining the main stage came The Weeknd. On stage, Tesfaye has the swagger of a newly crowned pop king, but doesn’t really yet have the number of hits to back it up. Then, as the clock went past midnight, a full band version of Bonobo took to the tent stage, with Simon Green’s set starting slowly and building up into a magnificent cathartic showing from his 11-piece band. The live instrumentation offers an organic vigour not found in his solo shows.
Savages kicked things off in the tent on Friday, with the second record transforming the band onto a new plain. Whether it’s Ay?e Hassan’s monstrously diving basslines, Gemma Thompson’s squalling noise-guitars, or drummer Fay Milton’s throbbing pulse, all under the watchful eye of the fearsome frontwoman Jehnny Beth; the four-piece are a terrific live act. They were really good in Lisbon and the early-evening crowd reacted in that way.
Another four-piece girl band then took to the stage in the form of Warpaint. Positioned in each corner of the stage, their individual contributions to the group dynamic is brought to the forefront in the live show. Whilst some bands may have a notable leader or two, Warpaint’s four members all carry unique facets which allows them to contribute to the overall songwriting approach. And, whilst on record their songs tend to slowly build up into a melancholic intensity, the live show is a more instantaneous beast, with a greater emphasis placed on grooves and improvisation.
Now well-experienced in the art of their irregular dynamics and obscure time structures, the foursome is an extraordinarily tight live act. Three albums deep, they’ve simultaneously retained their ability to manufacture hypnotic soundscapes whilst also managing to further expand them with added intensity on stage.
Staying in the tent, Wild Beasts have always traversed the space between indie and pop, producing some of the most honest and delicate songs of this century, but the new record has added an element of dance to proceedings, carrying an even greater potency to the live show. Meanwhile, Local Natives’ unpredictable, seductive rhythms got the midnight crowd bouncing.
Making my way to the main stage for the first time on Friday, Foo Fighters headlined the night in a set that went past the 150-minute mark, with 30 minutes of that coming from Dave Grohl’s on stage banter and crowd interaction. Their brand of modern rock‘n’roll is tailor-made for this sort of environment and the Portuguese crowd lapped it up for what was the band’s first gig there in over five years.
Paul Hill