Full in paradise

One hundred and fifteen thousand attendees took over the Portuguese municipality of Coura Wallswith nearly ten thousand inhabitants, on August 12, 13, 14 and 15; also its natural amphitheater and the Taboao river beach. Years ago I had the opportunity to go to the jewel of Portuguese festivals for a single concert and I was captivated by its main stage. That day I promised myself that I would live the entire experience again, but I did not expect to be able to do it with a poster of international excellence –Kneecap, Wet Leg (cover photo)Underworld, Bloc Party, Amyl and The Sniffers…– and national –To Garota Nao, Salvador Sobral, Sérgio & the advisors with friends…– like the one presented in this edition. So it was clear to me that this year was my perfect opportunity.

And after four intense days, several of them in marathon days from five in the afternoon to five at night to escape the greenhouse effect of the campsite – practically the only accommodation option due to the limitations of the town – I can reaffirm with complete certainty that the natural amphitheater, cradle of the main stage – without overlaps, the concerts are linked with the secondary Palco Coura Sem Paredes – is the true protagonist of the festival. And that, in part, is exactly why I decided to come. It is increasingly common to find the concept of “festigual” in the mouths of music lovers, festivals with clone posters, so I wanted to feel again that, whoever played, I would find quality proposals in a practically unique setting of extreme natural beauty. A stage with sublime acoustics and vision from any point in the venue. It is also appreciated that, although the festival bears the name of a multinational, it is not full of constant brand activations, but rather they take place in small, specific spaces.

While it is true that this is mainly a band festival – even for dancing, with that techno marching band that is Meute–, we were also able to enjoy great electronic proposals such as the British club sounds of Joy Orbison or the Barcelona duo Give me areawithout a doubt one of our bands with the greatest international projection thanks to an industrial post-punk of undoubted personality. To that we can add pop soloists (CMAT)experimental (Sophia Stel), roots music (Julia Mestre) or even a piano solo by the Canadian Patrick Watson. But let’s better move on to unravel some of the most outstanding live performances of the 33rd edition of a festival that is an oasis, although overcrowded, for live music lovers fed up with coachellization.

Wednesday August 12

CMAT
After the eclipse, we approached the main stage to enjoy the main pop proposal of the edition. The Irish CMAT He sang his viral hit “Take A Sexy Picture Of Me” although it was not essential to enjoy his fantastical, almost grotesque and always queer show. Transvestite musicians and a “Free Palestine” chanted in the Cha Cha Heels style were the most tangible props for a voice that was more mature than it may seem at first, with a tone similar to that of Dolly Parton and an energy that, together with the red dress she was wearing, could even at times remind that of Florence a+ The Machine, these being major words. The violins starred in his sound compared to the guitars, although the biggest role in his show was obtained by the can of Super Bock that he constantly drank on stage and that he ended up giving to one of the fans in the front rows who insisted on asking for it.

WET LEG
What not so many years ago seemed like a brilliant new feature of British indie, today is one of the most distinctive voices of an acidic, sexy and dramatized post-punk that in Spain is embodied by groups like shego. The original duo from the small Isle of Wight returned to Portugal with their usual live lineup of five musicians, with a more compact, more physical and much more ambitious live performance, in which the most perverse songs of “moisturizer” coexist without complexes with the anthems that catapulted them. The greater instrumental dimension has not made them lose their sense of humor, with a pink-haired Rhian Teasdale who seemed to be undergoing a teenage exorcism session, although it has shifted the center of gravity towards atmospheres of more prominent bass and sharper guitars compared to what, at a certain point, seemed like a passing phenomenon.

KNEECAP
After playing consecutively at the last two Primavera Sounds as well as a Bilbao BBK 2025, which turned out to be one of the most applauded performances, the Irish trio needs nothing more than their talent and synchronization to set the stage on fire. DJ Próvaí fires off beats that cross hip-hop, acid, dubstep and drum and bass while Mo Chara and Móglaí Bap spit their bars with a speed and rhythm that makes it almost impossible to escape the pogo. The trio is capable of universalizing hymns thanks to a humor, bad temper and form of militancy that is impossible not to resonate with a committed generational experience.

Thursday August 13

Garota Nao
The Portuguese discovery that, without a doubt, I took away from this edition is the always combative singer-songwriter Cátia Mazari Oliveira. What began as something intimate, marked by a soft melody overshadowed by the harsh and warm timbre of the artist, ended as a demonstration against the privatization of Portuguese beaches shouting “A puta que os pariu a todos.” In the middle, guitar music challenging stereotypes about their gender – whether musical or feminine – and their ability to make rock. The process between these three stages of the concert was almost imperceptible to the audience, demonstrating his mastery in building intensity without the need for grand gestures.

Gutierrez Brothers
The cinematic guitar dialogue of the Gutierrez Brothers It promised to be one of the most exciting performances of the edition, but between the psychedelic rock of Kurt Vile & The Violators and the physical techno of Underworld, the precious parsimony of the duo was not suitable for the penultimate set on the natural amphitheater. The hypnotic experimental atmospheres they create were lost among a dispersed audience for a concert that would be excellent in a hall, but that barely shined in Paredes de Coura.

Underworld
The Welsh duo formed by Karl Hyde and Rick Smith, aged sixty-nine and sixty-seven, turned the amphitheater into the biggest open-air nightclub we had during the festival. A hard and dark techno structured the electro, acid and breakbeat sounds, driving the drops and false drops with which some of the darkest and most experimental songs transitioned from a repertoire that, far from living off nostalgia, continues to incorporate new ways of understanding rave. Between visuals, expansive synthesizers and devastating sound production, Underworld once again demonstrated why their particular way of mixing man and machine, which became one of the great electronic references of the nineties, is not only capable of lasting but also of updating itself while maintaining all its authority.

Friday August 14

Carolina Durante
Los Cuatro Chavales brought together as many Spaniards as possible to cover themselves in sweat singing and jumping under considerable amounts of heat in the first performance of the day in the amphitheater. Less theatrical and more uninhibited than in their time at festivals last summer, they offered a show worthy of what they represent: being one of the best contemporary bands in our country. Eight songs were enough to make a journey from what was Amaia’s first post-OT publication, her particular and successful version of Marcelo Criminal “Perdona (ahora si que si)”, to the effective anthem “Hamburguesas”, which served as the closing. A round concert that, like “TOMÉ CAFÉ”, energized us for the rest of the day.

Bloc Party
Twenty years after their first performance at the festival, the sometimes dreamy and sometimes massive electronic punk of the British Bloc Party managed to literally create a ritual that had never before been experienced in a concert. In some way, we were all part of the same pogo from which during the entire set hundreds of people were lowered into the arms of the mass from all the heights and corners of the natural amphitheater as if they were an offering to the music, to the soul of Paredes de Coura. A true lucid dream.

MINE
After their most recent and religious album “MI7”, with seven samples of the trumpets of the apocalypse and a closing thirty minutes of silence, I feared the worst of the show. MINE. Although there were moments where I enjoyed it, I don’t think I can say the same for the majority of the audience. With that constant “pa-PA-PAA-PAAA!” Typical of major festival attractions, the first part of the concert was spent moving around the stage like the most camp – and why not say it, bad – proposals typical of no-budget television at Eurovision. Not a word of what he was saying was understood and in a festival worth mentioning, with very numerous displays of support for Palestine by the artists, the projected AI-generated images of the bombings in Gaza do not generate any type of empathy, but rather some embarrassment. For the end of the concert, a gospel choir was reserved that sang something similar to “I Love You Jesus” by Trisha Paytas or any religious camp song among which at times MIA appeared disguised as a blue camping tarp to try to sing more unintelligible bars. Absolute nonsense.

Carolina Durante – Photo by Hugo Lima

Saturday August 15

Meute
Before taking over the natural amphitheater, the eleven members of the German techno marching band once again organically created an effective dance session. They offered a surprise performance on the banks of the Taboao river beach with which they created an improvised aquatic rave. One of the most unexpected and special moments of the edition that, without a doubt, will remain in the memories of those who experienced it. On the main stage, Meute They were the first to set the beat for the most electronic night of the festival. Of course, with trumpets, bass drums, marimbas and saxophones. Not a single synthesizer or any mixing console in the most enjoyed and crowded “electronic” set of the edition. Of special identification and resonance for the locals, since the instruments are those of the pilgrimages of the Portuguese region of Minho.

Thundercat
The atypical, somewhere between camp and visionary, Stephen Lee Burner performed an exercise in virtuosity on stage, taking his six-string bass to a psychedelic party where jazz, funk and r&b intersected with surprising naturalness. Between changes of direction, impossible lines and a drum set and keyboards capable of following each of his pirouettes without ever losing his pulse, Thundercat It took the amphitheater through terrain that could have been excessively complex for a festival like this, but that ended up working just the opposite: because underneath all that technique there was always a song, a groove to hold on to or a chorus capable of returning the music to the most immediate terrain.

Amyl & The Sniffers
A perfect closing for a festival of perfect bands. Overflowing and without restraint as usual, Amyl, one of the most charismatic frontwomen of recent times, accompanied by The Sniffers – drums, guitar and bass with absolute instrumental mastery and exorbitant bpm by current standards – made us sweat the essence of Australian punk rock from The Saints to Cosmic Psychos among those who have managed to play non-stop – some seven hundred concerts in ten years on stage – to perfect their sound until they are the greatest representatives of their genre. at present. Its essence is therefore capable of converging perfectly with the values ​​of the festival. Great international exponents with a national identity, but, above all, know how to make rock that makes us all enjoy.