Primavera Sound day three on June 5 was, thankfully, a dry and sunny affair! With only clear weather in the forecast, gates opened at 3:45 pm for more than 60 artists and an estimated 100,000 fans.
First up on our list for the day was DJ Khalipha making the trip all the way from Lagos, Nigeria. DJ Khalipha has revolutionized Nigeria’s EDM scene. A pioneering Mara (now known as Street House) artist, Kalipha brought that same energy to Primavera Sound. Combining Afrobeats, Afro-Latin beats, live mixing, hard cuts, and analog sounds, he set the audience for a fast-paced dance party. Emerging from Nigeria, street house is popular with legwork dancers and the crowd felt that vibe, moving throughout the set.
Next up was Water from Your Eyes. They were on our must-see list mainly because Primavera Sound’s intro for them said, “Don’t believe anything this Brooklyn duo tells you. Don’t play their game… or you are done for.” After seeing them live, we understood why the festival went on to say, “Rachel Brown and Nate Amos’ songs seem like serious jokes. Other times, they’re art-pop cryptograms. They lure you in with some almost comical noise and then trap you forever in their rabbit hole.”
The band is an enigma. Is it serious? Is it a joke? Is it performance art, or are they making fun of the entire music industry? They’re Indie rock, but even that has to be taken with a grain of salt. Synths, distorted and haunting guitar, and some straight-laced metal drumming are all thrown into their set at different times. The most annoying and interesting thing is that the entire band is proficient. With that proficiency, they’re intentionally doing things that most artists fear. Their songs shift time signatures often and variably; they have abrupt endings when it sounds like a song is just hitting its refrain, and instruments are cut off seemingly randomly, as if someone accidentally pulled a chord.
As I watched more of the set, I decided to see it as a satirical labor of love, a take on musicians who take themselves too seriously. With that view, the set became not just a strong musical experience but a comedic relief for some of the other artists who are so focused on being the “it” person.
The moment that got me to think that was when frontwoman Rachel Brown said, “I never loved the U.S. until 2022; this [Barcelona] was the first place I came, and when I first stepped out of a car, I almost got hit by a bike. I remember it fondly.” Said in a straightforward and straight-laced way, what does this even mean!? Is she serious? Is she pointing out the U.S’s overreliance on cars? Is she making fun of the administration? We don’t have the answer but we did have to laugh.
Moving from sardonic to straight-ahead rock and roll, The Cure was up next. The British Rock band is an icon. Playing for 50 years as of 2026, there were more Cure T-shirts in every audience on June 5 than any other band (likely all other bands put together). The one constant over those 50 years was lead guitarist and frontman Robert Smith. Impressively, Smith’s voice has not diminished. Playing straight up and down British rock, The Cure know who they are, what they do, and what they want to play. In a time when many artists are transitioning between genres or blending them, the fact that the band’s music is so centeredis somewhat nice. With Smith’s gravelly voice and tastefully distorted guitar solos, the band was able to entertain a crowd of tens of thousands at the mainstage.
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Finally, Amaarae was the last of our artists to watch this year to play, and one of our most looked-forward-to concerts. Thankfully, she did not disappoint. At a packed amphitheater, thousands cheered from the first base hit before the artist even came on stage. The artist walked out after a massive light show that ended with the Ghanaian flag colors. The cheers reverberated and amped the artist up. The NY/Ghanaian rapper got the crowd engaged with her second song, StarKiller, with a call-and-response of “Kedamine, Coke, and Molly”. Throughout her set, she even threw in her own take on “Pump up the Jam” and a sample of ”Scream and Shout.” It was nonstop excitement with the crowds surrounding us yelling along with the rapper.
We’re ready for the last full day of Primavera Sound Barcelona, followed by the closing “Primavera Bits” on Sunday.
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