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Matt_was_taken describing Washed Out: "I could spunk all over that arse wank" :D

pretty much every band I saw were really good, but especially Thee Oh Sees, Refused, Sleigh Bells and Japandroids. Liturgy were kind of terrible though.

Missing loads of bands because they either clashed with something else, or they were on the bloody MINI stage. I still can't believe it was sponsored by the actual car company.

...but highlights that I can recollect in the afterglow of €2 shots include:

(warning, rambling thoughts follow, probably tl;dr material)

M83: crowd were massively up for this and enjoyed watching everyone go wild for Midnight City.
Chromatics: fantastic with live show adding something special to already excellent (and with a Kate Bush cover thrown in for good measure).
Aforementioned €2 shots.
Jamie xx: I'm reliably told that the first 45 mins was a masterclass in techno/disco/garage. I focused on dancing my tits off.
Massive plates of Mexican food - I pity the suckers going for the burrito option.
Hearing random band on Red Bull bus cover My Bloody Valentine.
6am churros munching.
Beach House - "Zebra".
The Cure rinsing out tune after tune after tune, especially the In Between Days/Just In Heaven double banger.
Lower Dens - "Brains"/"Stem".
Never waiting more than a few mins to get served at the endless metres of bars.
Jackmaster playing Radiohead "Everything In It's Right Place".
Saint Etienne waiting till the encore (and after Chromatics) before playing "She's On The Phone".

Lowlights: Smint Hats. That's it.

I can't recall a festival that's so well-planned (other than Auditorium gigs it seems), well laid out (no massive walking missions other than the Mini stage perhaps) and just so goddamned pleasant to attend in the warm Spanish sun (no aggro pissed-up dickheads). Repeat attendance is clearly required.

glad you had loads of fun

I haven't seen you and we've been here a week!

Highlights:

The Chameleons- possibly the most loved up performance of the weekend. Sounded amazing, everybody was really into it. Mark Burgess looked like he was 'floating on air'. Lovely.

Kindness- Everybody was going on about the Beirut/Wilco/Thee oh Sees clash. I'm really glad I went to Kindness. Incredibly groovy soul/funk/dance/pop, with a goofy and charismatic frontman.

Codeine- perfect for the ATP stage. Perfect sound and the singer seemed genuinely emotional, like the lyrics still mattered to him.

Chromatics, Neon Indian and The Rapture making everybody dance like loonies.

Big Star's Third-genuine spectacle. Norman Blake, Yo La Tengo dudes, Mike Mills, Sharon Van Etten all performing full blooded versions of a classic album.

The crowd rushing forward like mice at Jeff Mangum's 2nd day.

Mazzy Star were pretty good, sounded nice, and I love them, but perhaps too mellow for a big festival spot.

Lowlights-

The Cure have a lot of dross in their catalogue. Fucking hell. Waited about 40 mins between good songs.

Atlas Sound being a bit dull and having loads of sound problems.

Returning home on the Sunday, I felt apocalyptically awful. Somehow managed to be hungover, exhausted, unable to sleep and on the verge of a cold. And it's raining.

There's something oddly melancholic about the whole festival experience, like it's so condensed into an explosion of brilliance that it's almost intangible. Or maybe it's just the absinthe.

Highlights:
Chromatics were immense
The XX - the new stuff sounds brilliant, plus changing up old songs helped as well. kept everything fresh
The Weeknd - Oh that voice
Grimes - was good fun, even her ''dancers''
John Talabot - as mentioned above, a lot of dancing and did the songs a lot of justice live
Justice - was a massive party where i was standing
THE JD BAR

Lowlights:
Beach House were dreary. I enjoyed Zebra and Myth but man it dragged. Plus later in the evening the guitarist of beach house took it upon himself to start shoving me :/

The organisation side of the festival was real good i felt this year - didn't cue once for a toilet/bar, and getting home was easy by bus.

2013? Yes please (med degree provided)

Things that were brilliant:

Big Star's Third - and especially Jeff Tweedy's version of Blue Moon, which was an unexpected treat, as was a rendition of Thirteen. Holocaust and Big Black Car were amazing too but I kind of expected that.

Michael Gira - I've still never heard a single Swans song on record but both the full band last year and Gira solo this utterly blew me away.

The surreal chain of events around the Jeff Mangum gig on Saturday that led to me (and loads of other people too - he invited everyone to watch closer up) actually sitting on the stage about ten feet from him watching him play, followed by wandering off with a friend afterwards only to spot Ken Stringfellow and Mike Mills watching the set. I awkwardly wandered up and said how much I enjoyed the Big Star gig the night before. Ken Stringfellow was really chatty. Mike Mills less so but we exchanged nods.

Franz Ferdinand on Friday - all the hits!

Olivia Tremor Control - I was really looking forward to them and they sounded great.

Things that were surprising:

Yann Tiersen - much more compelling live than I expected, despite the fact it was pissing down with rain, umbrellas obscured my view and some Spanish people were talking next to me. The song he did with the violin was utterly, utterly amazing, I'd really enjoyed the Dirty Three but I thought, in that moment, Tiersen utterly blew it out the water.

The Drums - I'd have scoffed at anyone last week who told me I'd enjoy a Drums set but musically they're superb. If they got rid of the Martin Rossiter tribute act and got a decent lead singer in they'd be a great band.

The fact our failure to get into the Manchester bar on Sunday night meant we found up in a brilliant cocktail bar next door.

Things I'd liked to have seen more of:

Kleenex Girl Wonder and Lee Ranaldo - in both cases I only caught the very end of the set and really liked what I heard.

St Etienne - was really looking forward to them but got drunk and talked to people instead. I don't particularly regret my decision as I enjoyed being drunk and talking to people.

Things that were disappointing:

Not much at all. I only managed to see about four bands on the Saturday but that was mostly my fault. Other than that:

Death in Vegas - I'm biased here but why the fuck did Fearless get rid of their old band for a bunch of anonymous session musicians?

They replaced the awesome Jack Daniels wagon with something that sold cans of JD & Coke at high prices.

A general lack of diet coke. Not really a big deal but I want to pretend to be healthy when mixing something with spirits.

and the festival card so being told I'd have to miss the festival by the staff was a low! But once I got a police report and got in then despite the absolute lack of food and drink so being sober and hungry a lot of the time the rest was awesome AND I bumped into a Spanish friend of mine I lost touch with and haven't seen for five years <3 I hung out with a guy I know from home but barely so it was really cool getting to know him and we had a great time.

Chromatics were awesome, so glad I got to see Mangum though the organisation of that was a bit silly that he started whilst people were still queuing for a long time. Loved Sleigh Bells. Disappointed in Tall Firs a little. Gutted I went to Washed Out instead of Cadence Weapon.

Any good? Do i book a day ticket for Bloodstock to see them?

The whole thing just pretty much blew my mind. The festival site/layout I found very impressive, so easy to get from stage to stage. Gladly only missed the first few minutes of Jeff Magnum on Friday, constant goosebumps/shivers throughout... unreal.

Going alone I managed to see a ridiculous amount of bands, the vast majority were awesome with the stand outs being Chromatics(WOW), The Weeknd, SVE, Japandroids, and the thing I was most anticipating... Archers of Loaf into Afghan Whigs into Mazzy Star. Though Mazzy Star didn't quite live up to my expectations live, granted it was hardly the ideal setting.

Read plenty about the organization beforehand, everything seemed spot on bar the Jeff queue and luckily I wasn't hit too hard there.

Overall... the best, would go again in a flash.

Though I think I must have inhaled a couple of packs of cigarettes from all the second hand smoke :/

Top 5:

1. Wild Beasts (I still regret not seeing The Weeknd for a band I'd already seen 6 times, but they fucking ace)
2. Franz Ferdinand (As mentioned, all the hits,pretty much faultless)
3. Saint Etienne (Despite missing the start of their set)
4. M83
5. John Talabot (Again missed the start cos I was queuing for drink)

Generally ace, but few specific downsides:

The trek to the Mini stage taking so long.
Missing all of The XX queuing for a drink.
Being unable to enjoy Beirut and The Cure because I needed a piss so badly.
Shattering my wholesomeness by taking a little bit of MDMA (only enough to make my eyes glaze over and my face go red - according to my mate - I was already loser drunk)

is making me sad :(
dam

Highs:
The organisation - definitely improved and very good overall. No queues for urinals, short queues for toilets, food, beer (cash bars - what a concept!). The huge queue to exchange tickets on Weds was a downer though.
Good mellow crowd. The closest thing to "trouble" I saw was some English football fans (Man Utd?) chanting at a guy in a Barcelona shirt, but it all seemed friendly enough. And enthusiastic as well - see Wilco, Big Star, the Cure. People were singing the guitar solo in one Wilco song.
Saying hi to Wilco's Nels Cline in the food court and him being a very pleasant and gracious guy to talk to. (And told me that they love the crowds at PS and Spain in general).
The security in the Auditori: could have got heavy when people headed to the front during Big Star and Mangum, but they didn't. Made sure nothing went wrong, but let people have their fun.
Shellac's bass player deadpan to the crowd: "hola, cunts".

Lows:
My mate missing his flight and having to cancel after finding that the only flights the next day were at least £250 :(
Getting pick-pocketed on the Madrid metro (so not related to PS or Barca, obviously; still a downer though. Luckily the 300 euros I'd just taken out of the bank was in my moneybelt).
The crowd at the Mini stage - too much talking, not enough listening.
Being around loads of people who were very obviously on drugs at The Field, while not actually having any drugs myself.

The Music:
Walkmen were excellent on Wednesday and Black Lips were good. Wedding Present better than expected and the encore of Kennedy was a lot of fun.
Afghan Whigs were polished and I enjoyed them.
Mazzy Star was OK but a bit boring so I left for Mudhoney, who weren't.
Wilco great as ever.
XX were pretty good (I hadn't been impressed when they played PS10).
Saw a bit of Franz and it didn't really grab me. Spiritualized played a good greatest hits set.

Sisikyou were great and really happy to be there.
Girls mellow enough but a bit boring - should have gone to I Break Horses.
Big Star's Third was the highlight from the moment Jeff Tweedy took lead vocals on the first tune. Add in other Wilo members, Mike Mills, Yo La Tengo, Sharon van Etten and it was a genuinely great and moving experience. This bit was the highlight: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLAMqKULynA
The Cure: just the 36 songs then? I arrived late and still saw 25 of them. A really good set, mixing the hits with some album tracks for fans - including some that they hadn't played in 25 years.
Drums were good but I was tiring by then.

Jeff Mangum: rushing to the front of the stage was the best bit. It was a good show, but not the best of his I've seen. He chatted a bit and seemed to be having fun though.
Beach House: I'm slowly going off these guys. Just seemed boring and dragged, as lobotomypop said.
Shellac were more enjoyable than I expected.
Bit of Wild Beasts I saw was good, then into Yo La Tengo who had some good moments.
Overall I'm happy, it was my third time, definitely up for going again but may consider Porto next year depending on how that goes.

5 days. Primavera is just great and emphasises how shit some of the British stuff is in comparison (Reading / Leeds especially).

Highlights:

Father John Misty / J.Tilman / Josh Tilman (whatever he's calling himself, he was incredible), Archers of Loaf, Washed Out, Refused, Yo La Tengo, War On Drugs, Yann Tiersen, Walkmen, Afghan Whigs, Codeine (who were beautiful)

Shit stuff:

Disappointed with Real Estate, Mudhoney, Atlas Sound, the Mini stage in general - too big, too far away, too many dicks chatting away and not listening. Too many big clashes - but that was inevitable with the impressive line-up. The Melvins pulling out.

Oh, and hopefully Dave Pike of Sleep was OK - he had a brain aneurysm before the show. Some people were pissed that they cancelled, but unlike the Melvins, their reasoning was genuine.

apparently Sleep played Scion in the following days so if it was a brain aneurysm it must've been a fairly mild one...

absolute high point of the fest was Codeine - just amazing...

I saw them at Electric Ballroom last November and they blew me away. Went to their Primavera warm-up at the Forum last Monday and they were somehow even better, and I could tell everyone there was blown away too. How were they at PS?

So much good music:

- Archers Of Loaf were STUPENDOUS. All the hits (apart from Scenic Pastures, boo) and I just spent a solid hour head-banging and singing along to every word. I wish the crowd had been into it a bit more though, just a few groups here and there who were properly getting hyped up
- M83 killed it too, not my thing on album but as a live show it was basically untouchable. We were miles back and it was still basically just a giant mosh-pit for the whole thing
- Jeff Mangum couldn't really have been better, though it sounds like the Saturday gig was more involved than the Friday one, which is a shame
- Biggest surprised were Shellac and Refused. Saw both of them just out of curiosity when we were having a bit of a break, and they were both stunning. A bit samey at times, especially to a non-fan, but there were easily good enough to make me check them out. Wish I'd been at the front for Shellac actually, it would have sounded so freaking heavy

Only real downside was that I was basically unable to move my neck after the first few hours due to some vigorous dancing, meaning that i couldn't really join in the mass brawls that were the Japandroids and Wavves shows. Do wish I'd made it to see The Cure too, but by the time I got there I'd have been so far away that it just wouldn't have been worth it.

Also trying to get back to our flat at night was interesting. On the first night we followed a Google Maps route that sent us under an abandoned motorway, through a disused building site and left us crawling under a potentially electrocuted fence to get back on track. This really did seem like a good idea at the time too. Second night we tried to find a better route, but were drunk to the point that we thought we could just wing it and be fine. As a result a 30 minute walk took best part of 3 hours and we very nearly decided to just sleep in a park and deal with being lost in the morning. Organisation was not our strong point ...

In short, roll on 2013!

of music, it was great, with the cure, archers of loaf, afghan whigs and justice being highlights.

It was just a big car park though as a festival. Doesn't really have the overall festival atmosphere and character of a end of the road or glastonbury. And altough friendly overall, the crowd were a right chatty bunch of twats at times.

- Meeting Jeff Mangum off La Rambla
- The cheers when AraabMUZICK finally pressed the 'You are now listening to AraabMUZICK' button on his MPC
- Aeroplane playing to a packed out Ray Ban as the sun came up over the Med
- Several failed attempts to get a circle pit going during Refused, but many bruises. That smug feel that you know people went to see The xx instead.
- M83. The whole set. Especially We Own The Sky. Fuck.
- Olivia Tremor Control absolutely tearing it up to a small crowd of devotees on the Vice stage.
- Dancing for 3 solid hours to the Numbers showcase without realising any time had passed.
- Dirty Three being Dirty Fucking Three.

Lowlights:

- Iceage were shite. Grimes were a little disappointing. The Cure aren't really my cup of tea.
- Nothing else. All the other acts I saw could be on the highlight reel.

Maybe even better than last year.

HIGHLIGHTS:

- Yo La Tengo were utterly amazing, the longer songs were ridiculously good
- Shellac, 4th time I've seen them live, doesn't get boring, End of Radio was such fun
- Archers of Loaf in the late sun were terrific. Really great set and still sound fantastic
- Beach House
- The bits of the Field and the bits of John Talabot I saw
- Sneaking Vodka in by pretending its vodka was a great success
- Mazzy Star
Lowlights:

- Being on antibiotics but still drinking and becoming allergic to the antibiotics to the point of getting huge rashes all over my body and swollen face and lip. Lame.
- Queues for the bar felt needlessly long at times
- Melvins and Sleep cancelling. Didn't get my hardcore fix at all because I missed Harvey Milk too. At least Sleep had a genuine reason. The whole area seemed a little bummed for a while when Sleeps cancellation was announced.
- Missing Wilco and Wedding Present because my friends didn't get their arse in gear quick enough.

bands I remember enjoying
Dirty Three
Shellac
Michael Gira
Mazzy Star
Demdike Stare
Refused

There was a lot of bands who were ok but not great, I just dont get the hype with some of them...

Shame Sleep & the Melvins cancelled. Made it 6 bands I wouldve seen at the festival, its almost like a days line up missing.

No queues at the bar from what I remember, although they weren't free pouring spirits this year.

Good to meet the people who I met, had a right laugh.

Hungover Sunday.. sorry for bailing on you spitfire but them hours sleep were needed.

Went to Montserrat whilst I was there, if anyone likes walking/hiking, mountains or churchs I'd recommend it.

And as a smoker, i apologise for pissing you off.

and certainly wont be the last.

Got there just in time for Archers Of Loaf (literally midway through 'wrong') and again they were superb and seemed genuinely grateful to be playing to so many people.

Highlights for me were:
Archers Of Loaf
Field Music
Death Cab for Cutie (such a good setlist and BG looked like he was having the time of his life)
Refused
Wilco
Girls
SBTRKT
Kings of Convinience
The Weeknd - that voice
JUSTICE
The sound on each stage being absolutely spot on for all bands i saw too, never been to a festival where all bands started at the time advertised so promptly either.
Lowlights
Some tool with a blowhorn on the way to the mini stage.
4.50 'pints' of beer
the price of beers in the apolo- from 3 euros to 4.50 in the space of one day?!
the mini stage being so far from the main stage
the cure's never ending set.
Really didnt dig John Talabot either.

Just all in all a great place to be for those 3 days, gutted as hell to be back home.

Flight got delayed from manchester by six hours consequently I missed afghan whigs, archers of loaf & mudhoney. Three main reasons why I bought a tic in the first place.Regardless of my bad start had a great weekend,third primavera and up there with the best of them.Dont honestly think I seen a bad band all weekend,godflesh (truly awesome),harvey milk,sleigh bells,M83,shellac,talbot,franz,justice,refused all highlights. Gutted I missed wilco but ya cant win em all.I know its a bit early to start a 2013 thread but i will anyway. Im hoping for liars, jesus & mary chain, rocket from the crypt & fugazi reunions. Bring it on!
Any word on how the porto fest went? I might consider it as well next year.