da873623c98928185f5fee6ee4eb4d49

Primal Scream at Glastonbury 2013 – review | Musique Non Stop

da873623c98928185f5fee6ee4eb4d49

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Primal Scream at Glastonbury 2013 – review

Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream performing on the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury 2013

Bunged on before the Rollings Stones, Bobby Gillespie and the Primals give Mick and Keef a run for their money

Where and when

Pyramid stage, 7pm

Dress code

For Bobby Gillespie, a neon pink suit so bright that there's a danger the circling helicopters may mistake him for a landing light, or the anti-flare security guards might try to put him out.

What happened

It's a rather sly, belittling billing for the Primals. Just as they enter their third major cultural rejuvenation – Screamadelica, Vanishing Point/XTRMNTR and now the intense, politicised sonic squall of their new album More Light – they're bunged on before the Rolling Stones almost as a throwaway, soundalike warmup act, like having the Bootleg Beatles support McCartney. But the Scream are back on top form, their canon is formidable and, for all the Jagger "Woo-woo!"s drifting across Loaded, Gillespie sets out to transcend any short-sighted Stones comparisons with a steely, confrontational gaze in his eye.

Showing hints of the belligerence that turned their set at Glasto 2005 into a band v crowd bawl-off, Gillespie sugars the pill of More Light with surefire crowd-pleasers. So the state-of-the-shattered-nation 2013, its seditious sax riffs framing a portrait of a crumbling UK culture, dissent crushed and society's lower rungs snapped clean off, is followed by the breezy hoedown Country Girl. Invisible City, a gritty celebration of urban depravity, gives way to Movin' On Up. And the brooding dissertation on familial abuse that is River of Pain – including a cacophonic noise-jazz horn meltdown in the middle – is offset by the siren rave of Swastika Eyes.

He knows what Glastonbury wants, though. "Take acid! Take speed! Take ecstasy!" he yells as the Primals sweep into Loaded; and the last half hour is a full-on rock'n'roll party. Haim appear on stage to form a ballsy gospel choir for the new Movin' On Up – It's Alright, It's Okay – and lift the band through a closing run of Rocks and Come Together. "Fucking amazing, wasn't it," Bobby declares at one point. He's not wrong.

Who was watching

The gathering throng.

High point

Haim's backing vocals on Come Together appear to say "Paying my taxes" – a sly stab at the Stones' decades of avoidance tactics, perhaps?

Low point

"Here's one you'll know," says Bobby as an introduction to Movin' On Up. "Maybe it'll liven you up."

In a tweet

Match that, Mick

Rating: 5/5





guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds


by Mark Beaumont via Music: Electronic music | guardian.co.uk

No comments:

Post a Comment

jQuery(document).ready() {