#116: muzzing with irish dudes, hinge matches & choosing anonymity
sent from luke's iphone with love
anyway, welcome back (okay, presumptuous of me!!!) to sent from my iphone with love <3 this week we have a special dispatch from our enigmatic culture correspondent, luke, indulging us in a scene report from primavera sounds barthelona. please welcome him to the floor.
there he is! enigmatic!
I love you, Primavera -
My costar told me last year that I have to start confronting my ‘I haven’t’ mentality. Start doing! Face the fire and surrender! I had never been to a festival, aside from Hay, so I bought Primavera tickets. I’m listening, Universe. The promise was strong: the Powerpuff Girls of Pop - Charli (and her twink), Sabrina, Chappell - all together on a Catalonian concrete port. The first weekend of June to sage our sins and welcome the beginning of summer.
It began with Addison, whose album dropped one hour before the start of Primavera. I’ll never forgetting hearing New York for the first time with my girls on the beach.
I love this video I took of my friends Annabel and Jamison running towards the entrance. God! Just knowing I could go viral at any point, and choosing anonymity. By then we had each had five Sangrias and two mini tequilas. I had a mini bottle of gin and a bag up my coochie.
First up was Twigs. Annabel started barking like a dog when she came on. Kind of odd to see horny brutalism in the daylight, but she opened with Perfect Stranger and sent us catatonic. We agreed to stay until the end of Eusexua, then sprinted a kilometre to catch the last half of Magdalena Bay (run a mile in these Salomons!) Magdalena rocked the Amazon Music stage so hard. She wore these angel wings and had this sexy portal thing. I keep saying they’re doing 2003 Kylie like no one else.
We hit up the Aperol Island of Joy where an Aperol was 7€. Major. Had about four and then started feeling dizzy, so we lay down to watch the sunset at this ampitheatre sponsored by Cupra. A guy sitting alone in front of us had a Beach House shirt and gave off such great vibes. We realised the band playing was Spirtualised, those cool sexy alt-rock guys from the 90s and also my bath playlist. Coming-to and realising you’re witnessing greatness became thematic to this trip. My girls squatted in the urinal and got called feminists by a hun, and a few keys later it was time for Sweat. Sort of mid, sorry! There was so much Troye and I knew every lyric. It was his 30th, ouch. Chappell did the Apple and I came up hard.
Then we ran over to Brutalismus 3000, and when I tell you that I blew my pupils out AND had the best cigarette of my life. Diamond-cut Berlin techno ripping through our fucking souls. I started muzzing with this Irish dude who felt like pure light. We all said that was the greatest set of our lives. Then it was The Dare which was like Dalston Kingsland with a few confused Catalonians. My friend Jamison just stood there with her arms crossed and declared that irony isn’t sexy. Sun rose over the Barcelona bay, and it was all too bright.
Day 2 was total hangxiety, but the lineup was the remedy. The actual festival was seriously fab - no crowd crush, no long lines, full to the brim of hot fags and dykes. We arrived for Haim, who crushed it so hard, I just love those little brunette bitches. Now that is a fucking rock band. Loads of Hinge matches at that one. My friend Elli didn’t know a single song and started crying because they were that good. They played Don’t Save Me and Annabel and I started screaming like evil spirits were leaving our bodies, because we used to play that song in between readings of It and American Apparel hauls.
Then it was Beach House, another band that raised us, and we swayed and cried and began to feel whole again. There were so many cool couples in their 50s at that set who shared cigs with us. Sadly we had to miss Chanel Beads, who my friend said was “electric.” Around the time of Sabrina it went kind of blurry (in a really hot way) and all I remember is how much the girl from Wet Leg now looks like Lara Croft, and my friend Alex telling me their theory of Taylor Swift being trans.
We didn’t do Day 3, and that is okay, I’m totally fine with that and I just don’t live a life with regret. I heard LCD and Chappell were ‘god-tier’, which again, who cares. Lorde is headlining next year, probably, and our tickets are bought. All of this to say - music is my goddamn life! See you next year.
besooo