Primavera Sound Los Angeles had been a long time coming, Nine Inch Nails singer Trent Reznor noted during the band’s headlining set at the festival in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday.
“We had the privilege of playing Primavera Sound in 2014 in Barcelona,” Reznor said in a break between “The Lovers” and “Less Than.” “It was a great experience with a great vibe.
“And when they asked us if we’d play a version of it here, we said, Of course, we would,” he continued. “COVID had other plans. But finally here the (bleep) we are!”
The crowd, the biggest of the day, roared for that, and with good reason: Primavera Sound Los Angeles, which opened Friday with Lorde as its headliner, and wraps up Sunday with Arctic Monkeys atop the bill, was a terrific experience for a first-time festival.
The artists that played Saturday were a strong, eclectic, diverse group of performers from around the world. It was like a more international version of the former FYF Fest, a friend said as we walked from Chilean-American singer Paloma Mami on the Primavera main stage to Norwegian black metal band Mayhem on the Barcelona side stage.
The festival grounds at Los Angeles State Historic Park near Chinatown are lovely. Green lawns, scattered trees, wide paths are the opposite of those long-ago fests there where it felt like you were watching bands while standing in a rock pit during a dust storm and wondered why you thought that was a good idea.
And the crowd was chill throughout the day, seemingly happy with the short lines to get in, plentiful choices for arriving and departing, including an impressive number of people hopping on the Gold Line to ride the light rail home at the end of the night.
Here’s how the music played as we walked the grounds on Saturday.
Nine Inch Nails roared: It was clear by the NIN T-shirts on many, many fans, and the lines at the dedicated Nine Inch Nails merch tent, that most of the crowd Saturday was there to see Trent Reznor’s long-running industrial rock act.
And yes, when Nine Inch Nails takes off, it can feel like you’re standing in front of an array of jet engines – opening number “Somewhat Damaged” was body-shakingly loud. But Reznor & Co.’s gifts also include a sense of melody strong enough to compete with the power of the melody.
“Heresy” and “March of the Pigs,” played early in the set demonstrated that dichotomy beautifully. The latter, in particular, with its shifts from full-bore roar into a delicate piano and vocal break before throttling up to full power again.
Highlights midway through the set included “Closer,” a single off 1994’s “The Downward Spiral,” the group’s top-selling album, and “The Perfect Drug,” a 1997 song from the soundtrack to David Lynch’s “Lost Highway.”
With just an hour and 15 minutes for a festival-sized performance, the band managed to race through 16 songs, just five fewer than the full show it played at the Santa Barbara Bowl on Tuesday, closing with the one-two punch of “Head Like A Hole,” the first NIN song most fans ever heard, and “Hurt,” the always powerful and emotional Reznor song, which became even better known from Johnny Cash’s affecting cover.
Experimental indies: There was pop at Primavera but this wasn’t a pop fest, per se. It really couldn’t be, given the wide diversity of sounds in the lineup, including a pair of experimental rock acts whose sets were highlights if you caught them.
Geoff Barrow is best known as a cofounder and member of the English band Portishead. At Primavera, he played with the side project Beak>, a trio that plays a mix of atmospheric instrumental grooves inspired by Krautrock electronic pioneers and atmospheric vocals descended from the trip-hop roots of his other band.
Soon after, Kim Gordon, a cofounder of Sonic Youth, played a solo set with her band that took the raw alternative sounds of Sonic Youth and added her own songwriting twists to songs such as “Cookie Butter,” “Get Yr Life Back,” and “Grass Jeans.”
Yes, they also rocked: There were bands that played more typically indie rock and roll, though, like most of the lineup, the acts were curated for those little details that made them ever so slightly different.
Fontaines D.C. is a young Irish post-punk band from Dublin, and their late afternoon set caught the golden hour as the sun slipped behind the skyscrapers of downtown Los Angeles. Songs such as “Hurricane Laughter” and “Roman Holiday” gave singer Grian Chatten a chance to shine while the rest of the band blazed away behind him.
Khruangbin is a mostly instrumental trio from Houston who wins more fans every time a new festival crowd sees them play. Part of what makes them fascinating is the difficulty in pinning down what exactly it is that they are – psychedelic, funk, soul, surf rock, hip-hop, and global elements all show up at different times.
Whatever you call it, guitarist Mark Speer, bassist Laura Lee Ochoa, and drummer Donald “D.J.” Johnson, Jr. have a groove and a vibe that’s a joy to experience.
The Los Angeles band Warpaint was a last-minute addition to the lineup, joining when the previously booked Low had to bow out for health reasons. They’re another hard-to-pigeonhole act with elements of art rock and dream pop part of the brew.
Guitarists Emily Kokal and Theresa Wayman trade off vocals while bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg and drummer Stella Mozgawa anchor the band. Highlights of their set included such songs as “Love Is To Die,” sung by Wayman, and “Krimson” and Stevie,” handled by Kokal.
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