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stanofstan-blog · 5 years

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takes one to know one

Relationships: none {so far ;) }

Warning(s): idk, guns, slightly sassy Tony

Word Count: 1510!

Authors Note: this is for @iron-man-bingo ! The prompt is ‘Secret Agent AU’. Also, I’ve started watching MacGyver- so its that but Tony Starked.

Read it on AO3!

Straightening his collar and staring down the long ballroom, a smirk came to lips that had told plenty of lies over the years. Tony Stark in all his glory, masquerading as one 'Sebastian Vincent' all for the sake of a diamond ring that he had a very keen eye on. Tony Stark was much more well known around the community as a thief and an excellent one at that. Even though he had been clocked by various armed forces and agencies, Anthony Stark had one thing going for him. The sheer ability to lie out of his ass. "Jarvis, how we going buddy?" The voice in his ear responded immediately. 'Going great, Sir, everyone seems to be unaware of your presence and as of who you are. The door to the vault is guarded, and there is a fingerprint assess to get into the vault itself. The case may be rigged.' Tony nodded to himself and grabbed a flute of champagne, effortlessly blending into the crowd. Tony had an affinity for blending in with people, making easy chatter. He could read people far too easily. He was a spy gone rogue, and that was the only way he had gotten into the thievery business- and thus far not got taken in.

Unbeknownst to Tony, he had eyes on his back. It was the first time he hadn't spotted someone tailing him, and when he realised he would be rather upset he had missed the handsome man who had been staring at him. He took a sip from the flute of champagne, observing the crowd before setting the glass down, shedding his jacket and straightening his posture, sweeping one of the stainless steel serving plates from the table and passing one of the waiters, who didn't notice anything off or unfamiliar about him. Why would he when there were so many new staff members floating about for the main purpose of the event? Tony smiled to himself as he slipped into the back supply closet, closing the door behind him and clicking the lock. Tony hadn't come with any fancy tools, but he had learned how to improvise from what was seen as the best. His father. He had always thought it odd that Howard taught him all of these abstract methods of survival. Then after he had died he had learnt why at sixteen, when he was recruited into the agency his father had been in. He had lasted there a while before he turned to thievery. It was much more fun.

Tony had always been a brainbox for a kid. Always trying to impress his father, show him just what he could do even if his father made no plans to actually take care of what he was doing. With finishing MIT at the age of 15, it wasn't a surprise he would end up somewhere either on the good team or the bad team. But then again, Tony had his own side. The 'morally corrupt, but not too much because I steal from the rich guys' side. He closed his eyes and took a breather. Now was no time to get all reminiscent. It was work time and time for that diamond ring to be in his possession. Tony liked fancy and extravagant pieces to show off to his company, the devious and the divine lot of them, and from his research, the ring was valued to be the second most expensive diamond in the world. Tony already had the first. A blue diamond to match his favourite car. How fitting.

Tony got to work, looking around the storage room. Of course, he could try and persuade the host to let him have a look at the ring before the auction started, but that ran far too great of a risk. Of course, for Tony, it would be all fun and games- but he wanted to do it the proper way this time. He needed to get the security guard away from the door where the vault was contained. Easy enough. Interfere with equipment. All he needed was a magnetic field and.. bingo. He grabbed a battery from inside one of the handheld mixers that was being stored in the room, along with one of the cake wire cutters. He loosened up the wire and ripped it from the frame, winding it around the battery and smiling at the familiar buzzing sound. He held it tight in one hand, picking up a tray and venturing out of the kitchen. He neared the door, giving two female guests a charming smile and offering them champagne, having to refrain from chuckling as he heard the quiet exclamation of 'shit' from the guard at the door, who had just ripped his earpiece out, turning to storm to his boss, Tony was guessing. He winked at the girls and disappeared behind the door, still unaware of the eyes tracking his every move.

Tapping the side of his glasses, he gave Jarvis visuals on what he was seeing, glad for the AI he had developed, and the fact that technology was something he was highly gifted at. It made everything that little bit easier. Tony had already lifted a print, and from what Jarvis had gathered that was all he would need to get into the vault. He carried the tray past unsuspecting guards. He should have had to have an ID card to get in at the door, after all. He pushed his way into the room where the vault was located according to floor plans and stepped into a room that looked just like an ordinary lounging room, fitted with a fireplace and all. He knew better. Setting the tray down he looked around the room, eyes landing on the centrepiece of the room. A forgery of van Gogh. Tony had done better paintings than the forgery was himself as a child, and he had never very much been gifted in any of the arts. Anyone could imitate art. No promises of it being good, however.

He slowly pulled on the painting, rolling his eyes as it opened up on hinges. Typical. He walked through the doorway and up to the scanner and paused. Oh. Not a good sign, it was a full handprint scanner. Of course, he could go back to his original idea- and the easier idea, less risky- of persuading the seller to let him see the ring, but instead he went his own way. Now any good spy- and thief- knows if you scrape plaster from a wall and dust it onto the scanner, cover your hand with material and apply the slightest amount of pressure, you have about a 95% chance of tricking the scanner into thinking you were the last person to use it. As for the 5% chance of it failing- you just had to hope that permissions hadn't been taken away from the last person to use it, or you didn't slip and accidentally register your own fingerprints into a system. Tony let out a sigh of relief as the door clicked open, and there was a small box with silver clasps on it, just daring him to open it. So he did. No alarms went off, and the silence was almost deafening. The beating of his heard made up for the silence, though. The adrenaline rush he got from this was unparalleled. And Tony had jumped from buildings for funsies.

Picking the small pillow box up that contained the ring, he flipped the lid open to look at the blue diamond, and the alarms started blaring. "Balls. Jarv, how many incoming." He tucked the box in his inside pocket, waiting on an answer from the AI as he hopped from the vault, picking up the serving tray and knocking the flutes from it with a crash. 12 gauge stainless steel. Enough to stop the standard issue guns he had seen the guards had on them. A guy with two guns rounded the corner. "Listen up buttercup, I know you guys are paid to-" He held the serving plate up as he ran across to the large couch, landing behind it and flattening himself. He took in a few gulps of air. "protect this, but it really wasn't worth the pain." He sprung up, hurling the serving plate like a frisbee, wincing as it made contact with his neck, Tony watching him fall to the floor. He left the room and broke out into a jog.

Hopping over the bannister of the stairs he made a run for the front doors, hopping into a car that the valet had just pulled up, unaware to the figure in the back seat. He was smiling to himself as he put his foot down on the accelerator pedal. Knowing people would be quick on his tail, he pulled up at the marina, hopping into the first boat Jarvis could hack into. "God bless technology." He twisted as he heard someone else get onto the boat, catching a glimpse of blonde hair before he was knocked unconscious.

#iron man bingo 2019 #writing #tony stark #iron man #ironman #marvel #marvel fanfic #marvel fandom #avengers fandom #avengers #mystery man following tony is steve ;)#the stony warrior in my jumped out

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pretty-roach · 5 years

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good morning dad! 2, 9, 11, 16, 22, 25, 28, 29, 30, 37, 46, 56, 60, 63

hello trumpet son!!!

2. On a scale of 1-5, how afraid of the dark are you?

the dark does make me a little unnerved but i’m too lazy to turn on the lights to -2

9. Bright room or dark room?

Dark room

11. Favorite age you’ve been so far?

right now, 17, ngl

16. The last song you listened to?

Lady Killer- Jarv & Thief

22. Do you have a secret talent? If yes, what is it?

i am absurdly good at bop-it

25. You just found $100! How are you going to spend it

More clothes! And art supplies!

28. You discover a beautiful island upon which you may build your own society. You make the rules. What is the first rule you put into place?

it’s socially acceptable to eat cereal at any time of day

29. What is your favorite expletive?

yknow cunt just has a nice ring to it

30. Your house is on fire, holy shit! You have just enough time to run in there and grab ONE inanimate object. Don’t worry, your loved ones and pets have already made it out safely. So what’s the one thing you’re going to save from that blazing inferno?

my laptop? sketchbook? or maybe my whole bookshelf

37. Have you ever built a snowman?

y e s

46. Are you reliable?

I mean yes but on second thought am i?

56. What do you like on your toast?

you c a n ‘ t go wrong with butter, a timeless classic

60. Do you believe in aliens?

I would say yes

63. Which is cooler: dinosaurs or dragons?

Dragons i mean- c’mon. A secret cove of treasure and wings AND breathes fire? Plus there’s a good chance the dragon is secretly a badass lesbian who goes around slaying men and protecting her princess. the solidarity is unreal

#adventures with my kids #adventures with greyson #we love a smol bean

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impulsetravels · 3 years

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playlist. 03 february 2021.

beastie boys - ricky's theme // nyc khruangbin + knxwledge - dearest alfred (myjoy) // space city + el lay bomba estéreo - deja // bogotá rhye - safeword // el lay roosevelt - strangers // viersen hemai + emilia anastazja - noa noa // ldn + basel + germany + poland saint ezekiel + adrián terrazas-gonzález + magnús jóhann - original american dream // philly + chihuahua + el paso + el lay + iceland adrian younge - the american negro // el lay enny + jorja smith - peng black girls (remix) // ldn badbadnotgood + mf doom - the chocolate conquistadors // toronto + strong island + uk lous and the yakuza + joey bada$$ - amigo // drc + belgium + bk bad colours + jarv dee - feelin' like // bk + seattle classix + local natives - weekends // el lay — empanadamn selections: people under the stairs - san francisco knights // el lay people under the stairs - keepin' it live // el lay people under the stairs - la9x // el lay people under the stairs - anotha' (bbq) // el lay people under the stairs - trippin' at the disco // el lay people under the stairs - can't hold it back // el lay people under the stairs - the sound of a memory // el lay david t. walker - lay lady lay // tulsa beastie boys - car thief // nyc sophie - lemonade // glasgow sophie - immaterial // glasgow charli xcx - roll with me // london + glasgow flume + sophie + kučka - voices // sydney + glasgow vince staples + kendrick lamar + kučka - yeah right // compton + australia shygirl - slime // ldn sophie - just like we never said goodbye // glasgow michael damian + scott gale + rich eames + larry weir + tom weir - saved by the bell theme // el lay + san anto tennyson - 7:00 am // canada » LISTEN «

#Playlists

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littlesouthblog · 4 years

Link

June 23rd - 27th 2021 | Worthy Farm, Pilton

Glastonbury 2020 has been cancelled with the focus now on next year's festival taking place 23rd-27th June 2021. The festival was due to feature Paul McCartney, Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar among hundreds more. Artists are already showing gaps in their 2021 tour schedules around the week of next year's Glastonbury festival. It is largely expected that the majority of artists booked for this year will not want to miss out on a 'bucket list' gig like Glastonbury. Expect Taylor Swift, Paul McCartney and Kendrick Lamar to keep their headline slots unless the Eavis' are planning a musical shake up.

Event info

What the promoter says

We are so sorry to announce this, but Glastonbury 2020 will have to be cancelled, and this will be an enforced fallow year for the Festival.

Clearly this was not a course of action we hoped to take for our 50th anniversary event, but following the new government measures announced this week – and in times of such unprecedented uncertainty – this is now our only viable option.

We very much hope that the situation in the UK will have improved enormously by the end of June. But even if it has, we are no longer able to spend the next three months with thousands of crew here on the farm, helping us with the enormous job of building the infrastructure and attractions needed to welcome more than 200,000 people to a temporary city in these fields.

We would like to send our sincere apologies to the 135,000 people who have already paid a deposit for a Glastonbury 2020 ticket. The balance payments on those tickets were due at the beginning of April and we wanted to make a firm decision before then.

We understand that it is not always easy to secure a Glastonbury ticket, which is why we would like to offer all those people the chance to roll their £50 deposit over to next year, and guarantee the opportunity to buy a ticket for Glastonbury 2021. Those who would prefer a refund of that £50 will be able to contact See Tickets in the coming days in order to secure that. This option will remain available until September this year. For those who are happy to roll their deposit over, that will happen automatically. Further information – including details on rolling over coach packages, official accommodation bookings and local Sunday tickets – will be added to our website in the coming days.

The cancellation of this year’s Festival will no doubt come as a terrible blow to our incredible crew and volunteers who work so hard to make this event happen. There will also inevitably be severe financial implications as a result of this cancellation – not just for us, but also the Festival’s charity partners, suppliers, traders, local landowners and our community.

We were so looking forward to welcoming you all for our 50th anniversary with a line-up full of fantastic artists and performers that we were incredibly proud to have booked. Again, we’re so sorry that this decision has been made. It was not through choice. But we look forward to welcoming you back to these fields next year and until then, we send our love and support to all of you.

Michael & Emily

Line Up

Kendrick Lamar

Paul McCartney

Taylor Swift

Diana Ross

Aitch

AJ Tracey

Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals

Angel Olsen

Anna Calvi

The Avalanches

Banks

Baxter Dury

Beabadoobee

The Big Moon

Big Thief

Black Uhuru

Blossoms

Brittany Howard

Burna Boy

Cage The Elephant

Camila Cabello

Candi Staton

Caribou

Cate Le Bon

Celeste

Charli XCX

Clairo

Confidence Man

Crowded House

Danny Brown

Declan McKenna

Dizzee Rascal

Dua Lipa

EarthGang

EOB

Editors

Elbow

Fatboy Slim

FKA twigs

Fontaines D.C.

Gilberto Gil & Family

Glass Animals

Goldfrapp

Greentea Peng

Groove Armada

Haim

Happy Mondays

Herbie Hancock

Imelda May

The Isley Brothers

JARV IS…

Jehnny Beth

The Jesus and Mary Chain

Kacey Musgraves

Kano

Kelis

Khruangbin

KOKOKO!

La Roux

Lana Del Rey

Laura Marling

Lianne La Havas

The Lightning Seeds

London Grammar

Mabel

Manic Street Preachers

Metronomy

Nadine Shah

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds

Nubya Garcia

The Orielles

Pet Shop Boys

Phoebe Bridgers

Primal Scream

Richard Dawson

Robyn

Rufus Wainwright

Sam Fender

Sampa The Great

Seun Kuti

Sinead O’Connor

Skunk Anansie

Snarky Puppy

Soccer Mommy

The Specials

Squid

The Staves

Supergrass

Suzanne Vega

Thom Yorke Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes

Thundercat

Tinariwen

TLC

Tom Misch & Yussef Dayes

Tones And I

via littlesouth

#IFTTT #littlesouth

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anneeiffel · 6 years

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@pinabutterjam replied to your post

“ppl should ask me to recommend them songs cuz its 100% guaranteed to...”

send me music pls, im looking for new stuff

i’m sorry it took me three years to respond to this but imma try and put some like fav songs from fav bands!!! if you like the song i put u’ll prob like the rest of the stuff the band does cuz... they’re amazing o lord. I’ll bold my fav bands which everyone should def listen to

Paradise Valley by Honey and the Sting

Slack Jaw by Jarv & Thief

Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song) by Billy Joel

This Girl by Punch Brothers (this band is honestly one of my favorites. If I could I would put every single one of their songs in this list)

Changing of the Seasons by Two Door Cinema Club (one of my top favorite bands)

Their earlier stuff is more dance-y and one of my favs from that album is Kids

Always by Panic! At the Disco (probably my top favorite band ever)

Rye Whiskey by Punch Brothers (I couldn’t stop myself they’re just so damn good!)

The Pretender by Foo Fighters (this song is just pure, unadulterated, power)

If you want any more recs I’d be delighted to give u more!!

#pinabutterjam #my tunes #prep noises

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agxtsuma · 5 years

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infinity emoji

The Boiler Room - Jarv & Thief

“With the stealth of a thief, I feel the feet beat above me / The crickets dig the melody, they're tellin' me it's lovely“

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bolachasgratis · 5 years

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NOS Primavera Sound 2019

Hugo Lima / NOS Primavera Sound

It’s starting to be too common: no matter how warm and sunny it is in the week leading up to the festival, NOS Primavera Sound (NPS) is doomed to be ruined by at least one day of rain. The first day did not look promising after the announcement of the passage of depression Miguel (no, not the rnb star who performed there a couple of years ago) through the north of Portugal. Flights were cancelled, Ama Lou and Peggy Gou could not reach Porto in time to perform, strong winds and rain showers threatened to turn Parque da Cidade into a muddy mess, the gates were opened almost an hour later than it was scheduled.

JARV IS.... Hugo Lima / NOS Primavera Sound

But then there was music. Under a temporarily clear sky, and in front of probably the smallest crowd ever in the 8pm slot at the main NOS stage, Built to Spill performed what was one of the longest shows in NPS history. In over an hour and a half, they have not only revisited Keep It Like a Secret in full, but have also played selections from their 25+ years long career, from the marvellous “I Would Hurt A Fly” off their 1997 masterpiece Perfect from Now On to Untethered Moon’s “Living Zoo”. At times, the stage looked too big for a quartet of introverts playing for other introverts, but their set was engaging enough for us to have to miss a few songs off Jarvis Cocker’s first solo show in the country in nine years. JARV IS… a six-piece band complete with guitars, a harp, sax, keys, and, of course, a rolling-all-over Jarvis, agile and charming as ever. A couple of new songs were the highlights among songs off Further Complications (“Homewrecker!”, “Further Complications.”). There was also time for a single incursion into Pulp material (“His ‘n’ Hers”) that left everyone nostalgic for one of the best Portuguese festival shows in recent history: Pulp’s takeover of the Paredes de Coura festival back in 2011.

Allen Halloween. Hugo Lima / NOS Primavera Sound

At the green, lush Pull & Bear stage that once was sponsored and programmed by ATP, and after another surprise rain shower, local hip hop hero Allen Halloween was on. Although he has struggled to gather a big crowd as headliner Danny Brown prepared to take over the NOS stage, and his Portuguese lyrics clash into a language barrier that drove most foreign visitors somewhere else, his devotees seemed to be delighted after his short set (we know we were). In “greatest hits” mode, he and his two fellow Kriminal crew MCs dropped hit after hit, starting with the catchy “Drunfos”, a song off A Árvore Kriminal about prescription painkillers that miraculously solve back pain. The most recent album Híbrido got plenty of love throughout the show, too, as Allen strolled through “Bandido Velho”, “Youth”, and “Mr. Bullying”, the best revenge song of the 2010s. But the highlight of the show had to be set closer “Fly Nigga”, off 2006’s Projecto Mary Witch.

Stereolab. Rita Carmo / BLITZ

Back at the SEAT stage, a blast from the past as Stereolab performed for the first time in ten years. The long, jammy, jaw dropping “Metronomic Underground” was the highlight in the first half of the show that had to be cut short so we could witness the full extent of Tommy Cash’s odd world. The Estonian rapper/producer combines the funniest visuals of the whole festival with nonsensical lyrics in a seemingly faux-Eastern European heavy accent, but it’s when the Russian hardbass-influenced tracks drop that the Super Bock stage crowd properly erupts. But the greatest moment of the night was still to come, as Solange took the NOS stage by storm. Not in a bombastic way, as we know her sister would do, but through a meticulously prepared, aesthetically spotless show. The finesse of the performance, focused on her latest record When I Get Home, was only interrupted in the semi-ecstatic, early-career banger “Losing You”, before an epic, copious rain shower sent half of the audience home halfway through the encore. We wanted to see Yaeji later on, but perhaps she shouldn’t have ordered all that rain.

Courtney Barnett. Hugo Lima / NOS Primavera Sound

Friday started with yet another major headache for the organisers: a radar problem in the airport has led to major delays and flight cancellations, and Mura Masa’s show was also cancelled, but the rest of the festival ended up going on as planned. Major headache for us, then: a somewhat tedious Aldous Harding show didn’t let us see what was one of the highlights of the festival for everyone who saw them (Jambinai); on the other hand, the triumphant return of the Basque rock powerhouse Lisabö (two drummers, plenty of guitars, beautiful, beautiful noise) made up for our choice of dropping our favorite Nilüfer Yanya, who we have seen earlier in May. We haven’t seen Courtney Barnett ever since she released her latest record Tell Me How You Really Feel, and we feel like we made the right call on this one, even though that means snubbing another marvellous Sons of Kemet show. Unlike Built to Spill the day before in the same exact time slot and stage, the Australian singer-songwriter’s trio knew exactly how to fill up a big stage. And how can something go wrong if you start off with the addictive “Avant Gardener”, the song that made us quit the Slowdive reunion show ten minutes into the concert so we could see her perform for an half-empty Pitchfork tent back in 2014? With a setlist that drew equally from both her LPs, plus a couple of oldies (good to know “History Eraser” is still part of the show) and non-album tracks (“Small Talk” and the very recent RSD single “Everybody Here Hates You”), Courtney Barnett’s band is a well-oiled machine destined to make new fans in every single festival show this season.

J Balvin. Hugo Lima / NOS Primavera Sound

Speaking of well-oiled machines, do we really need to review Shellac’s show yet another year and tell you it was the best hour we spent in the festival? This time around we got a few funny lads in the pit, including one dressed like Mickey Mouse (the true MVPs), and Steve Albini dropping some Ed Sheeran diss lines during “The End of Radio”. Wash your bedsheets you pig. And then the little, sad, grey world of “underground” indie purists that can only dance to “Blue Monday” fell apart as reggaeton giant J Balvin took the stage; the word “Reggaeton” filling up the screen as he performs the song with the same name. It looked like a foreign power taking by force a territory that will be their colony for the next hour and a half, sticking a pole and hoisting their flag as high as they can. But, this time around, it’s not a bossy bunch of Europeans landing in a tropical island; it’s the “tropical island” folks biting back, as the sound of Latin barrios becomes, at least temporarily, the lingua franca at the NOS stage. The show itself could have used more tracks off the excellent Vibras, released last year, and both “Machika” and “Ambiente”, two standout tracks off that record, could have gotten the full treatment instead of being only partially played; some songs in which Balvin features are perfectly discardable. But the apotheotic finale with his biggest hit to date “Mi Gente”, featuring a colorful bunch of cartoons, both on stage and on screen, has to be the highlight of the day and possibly of the whole festival. Dios bendiga el reggaeton.

JPEGMAFIA. Hugo Lima / NOS Primavera Sound

Elsewhere, Interpol has recovered from what was possibly the worst trainwreck we have witnessed in NOS Primavera Sound history (not sure if the 20 minutes long Neil Michael Hagerty show a couple years back was as terrible or the best thing we’ve ever seen, so there’s that) by performing a pretty solid show, anchored in what they know are the most vital records they’ve released: Turn On the Bright Lights and Antics, going fifteen and seventeen years back in time to bring us some of the most iconic guitar-driven of that decade (“C’mere”, “Take You On A Cruise”, “Leif Erikson”, “Obstacle 1″, “Roland”...). If you know when to avoid any recent tracks - although we have to say new single “Fine Mess” did not sound as bad as anything else they have released in the past decade - it’s a fine moment to see Interpol for old times sake, as Paul Banks apparently learned how to sing. With his sunglasses on at midnight, of course. Our night ended at the Pull & Bear stage with JPEGMAFIA wishing Morrissey was dead, rapping, jumping and crawling around the stage as a one-man-show should, and with a late night SOPHIE live act. If the more atmospheric, less interesting first half of the show threatened to send us all home with the feeling we could have went home earlier instead of freezing to death, the “Whole New World”/“Ponyboy”/“Faceshopping” combo was enough to bring us back to life.

Shellac of North America. Hugo Lima / NOS Primavera Sound

Saturday was the most guitar-driven day of the bunch, and our decision to have lunch in a nearby restaurant paid off when we learned Shellac was playing an extra 4pm show at the entrance of the festival for a handful of lucky people, including Low’s Alan Sparhawk, who sat at the floor as happy as any of us. Hop Along had the tough task to open the big stage as a dozen of Rosalía fans were already lining up for her much later show on the same stage. The Saddle Creek-signed indie rock quartet spearheaded by songwriter Frances Quinlan is always great live, as we have recently seen as they opened for the Decemberists on a recent European tour, but we soon had to hop to the SEAT stage to check out post-punkers Viagra Boys. You wouldn’t tell from their looks (frontman Sebastian Murphy is up on stage half-naked, showing a full-tattooed torso) that this funny group of Swedes loves taking the piss of macho men (and, apparently, everything else), but that’s just what they do.

Viagra Boys. Hugo Lima / NOS Primavera Sound

Coming up next was Big Thief, our favorite new band of the past couple of years. This meant we had to miss both Lucy Dacus and Tomberlin, who we would be obviously excited about, if only we had three sets of eyes and ears (and another couple of brains to process it all). We seem to get plenty of Masterpiece songs every time they perform in Portugal, and we’re not complaining. From “Paul” to “Real Love”, with the sad but hopeful “Parallels” thrown in the middle, there was plenty of songs off their debut to enjoy until the whole crew joins the band for one last performance of the title track to finish off the European leg of their tour. There was even time for guitar player Buck Meek - finally back with the band - to shine and play one of his solo songs, and for a couple of unreleased songs. Please release a studio version of “Not” ASAP, guys. Thanks. Still on the SEAT stage, Guided by Voices tried their best to stuff 36 songs in one and a half hours - and although we did not count them, someone else did. I cannot seem to memorize half of my passwords, and yet Robert Pollard can go through lyrics of three dozens of songs from eleven different albums (with a focus on the most recent albums - both released this year - Zeppelin Over China and Warp and Woof), including semi-hits “Game of Pricks”, the highly celebrated “Tractor Rape Chain”, and set closer “Glad Girls”. A lesson of what we now call “indie rock” for newcomers to learn from.

Kate Tempest. Luís Sousa / Música em DX

The 10pm slot of the festival was one of the busiest. We’re sad to know Tirzah was playing for less than a hundred of people at the Pull & Bear stage and decided to check out Rosalía, way closer in the NOS stage. It was the busiest we saw the main stage during this edition of the festival, and the Spanish singer seemed to have full control of the big stage as she, accompanied by half a dozen of dancers dressed in white, performed her duet with James Blake, “Barefoot in the Park”, a new flamenco-inspired song (“De Madrugá”), and “Catalina”, a highlight from her debut album Los Ángeles. Too bad we cannot be near Kate Tempest and not go see her, even though we were at one of her ‘trial’ shows for the upcoming new album tour less than a month ago, and we had to go back to the SEAT stage, where Tempest was already performing “Europe Is Lost”, one of the standout tracks off 2016′s Let Them Eat Chaos. She’s on stage with only her keyboard player and a very simple setting: some sort of circular canvas where her figure is sometimes projected as she delivers the heaviest, the most hopeless, but also the most hopeful lines you’d hear all festival. Especially on the second half of the show, as she focuses on her yet unreleased new album, The Book of Traps and Lessons, from which she draws tracks like the "singles” (if we can call it that) “Firesmoke” and “Holy Elixir”, plus “Hold Your Own”, one of the most beautiful moments of the whole weekend. We do not deserve Kate Tempest, one of the best artists of our generation.

Low.

Along with the fantastic Shellac/J Balvin sequence, the last three shows of the festival ended up being the best we’ve seen. There were legitimate concerns that Low’s music was too quiet and solemn to be played simultaneously with the likes of Modeselektor and Neneh Cherry in nearby stages, but although some of the sound from other stages made its way into the surroundings of the Super Bock stage as the Duluth band played their set, we wonder if people in the other stages were not equally affected by the whirlwind of sound Low has managed to produce during a breathtaking and extra loud “Do You Know How To Waltz?”, the majestic, noisy long track off 1996′s The Curtain Hits the Cast, complete with a maelstrom of strobes and visuals that were absent from the arguably quieter European 2018 fall tour. Although the setlist was more focused on their recent Double Negative, an album with a radically distinct production but that sounds exactly like classic Low when translated to a stage, there were a couple of trips to older records (“Lazy”, from debut I Could Live in Hope) and some of the most interesting tracks off their albums from the 2010s (Ones and Sixes’ “No Comprende” and C’mon’s “Especially Me”). If we knew the show would be as good as it was, we would have hugged Alan Sparhawk as much as he was hugging Bob Weston halfway through during that extra Shellac show.

Yves Tumor. Hugo Sousa Photography

But the real surprise of the night (and of the whole festival) came on our final show: as Erykah Badu was already more than half an hour late at the main stage, Yves Tumor took the opportunity to steal the show with one of the most energetic concerts of the festival. The androgynous performer, some kind of 22nd century glam-rock inspired Prince, completely dominated the stage from the moment he sets foot on stage and starts giving out signed tour posters (“nobody buys them anyway, just have them for free”). And off-stage too, as he was carried in the arms of an army of fans trying to avoiding being hit by his large heels. He performed only four (very celebrated) songs off his latest record, Safe in the Hands of Love, including the sing-along masterpiece “Lifetime”. Instead of being safe in the hands of his familiar old tracks, Tumor chose to focus on unreleased songs instead, completely suiting his band (guitar, bass, drums, and electronics) that sounds like has been playing together for ages. No video can truly capture what it was to be there, but here you go (Thanks Campainha Eléctrica for doing the Lord’s work).

NOS Primavera Sound

All in all, we left Parque da Cidade with the feeling we have witnessed what was, against all odds (weather included), the best NOS Primavera Sound edition of all time. It was the only time since we first visited the Barcelona festival, back in 2009, that we could not find half an hour to sit down, relax and have a long chat with our peers because there was nothing interesting going on (and, in that regard, we have to thank the recent decision to open all stages during the first day of the festival). Sure, some overlaps of artists that appeal to the same groups of fans (Allen Halloween vs Danny Brown, Big Thief vs Lucy Dacus vs Tomberlin, Hop Along vs Viagra Boys, Amyl and the Sniffers vs Guided by Voices, Tirzah vs Rosalía vs Kate Tempest) look like they could have been avoided. This could have attracted more people to the festival, especially those who feel the organisation have somehow “betrayed” them by focusing less on indie rock and guitar music on the festival’s prime time slots. That being said - all the bands we could not see could have easily filled another full day of the festival. And, at the same time, we feel the smaller amount of festival attendees has ultimately benefited and rewarded whoever still decided to go to the festival, as less people also means less queues, better views of the stages, a friendlier environment, less people chatting over the artists - we have never experience such a quiet festival in Portugal, with no one to argue with. Except those four girls who couldn’t turn the volume down during Kate Tempest’s quiet songs - you know who you are, and, well, your loss! Maybe we have hit the ideal spot, and entrances could and should be capped to 2019′s levels. See you at Porto’s Parque da Cidade in June 11-13 2020, where Pavement is scheduled to perform one of the only two shows of the second coming of their long awaited reunion. Tickets are available next June 17 for a short period of time, only for 2019 ticket holders, and from July 4 (for a period of 48 hours) for everyone else.

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