Primavera Sound Barcelona 2025 – 7 June 2025 (Barcelona)

After a Friday marked by the concerts of TV on the Radio, Carolina Durante or Zaho de Sagazan, the Primavera Sound 2025 faced its last day in the Parc del Fòrum, with the name of Chappell Roan standing out in a line-up that also counted with Fontaines D.C., LCD Soundsystem, Turnstyle, MJ Lenderman or ANOHNI and the Johnsons, among many others, in what was undoubtedly the big day of this year’s edition.

Photo of Turnstile by Gisela Jané, provided by the Primavera Sound 2025 organisation.

Horsegirl

Having lost strength over the previous two days, we took a longer nap in the afternoon and didn’t arrive at the Forum until 7 pm, just in time to see the last 30 minutes of the Chicago band Horsegirl‘s show. The American trio’s great asset is their catchy, melodic pop full of choruses that you find yourself humming an hour later. However, their lack of expressiveness on stage (perfect execution with no emotion) meant that their show fluctuated too much. Although they gave us great moments like ‘Well I Know You’re Shy‘ and the drum and guitar exchanges in ‘Anti-Glory‘, they need to be more consistent throughout their shows to bring all the strengths of their LP to their live performances.

Photo of Horsegirl by Sharon López, provided by the Primavera Sound 2025 organisation.

Black Country, New Road

A few metres away and with a proposal that seems to be getting closer and closer to that of Horsegirl, British band Black Country, New Road performed in Barcelona after their singer, Isaac Wood, left the band a few months ago. His role was distributed equally among the other band members.Forgetting their post-punk beginnings, soft and precious saxophone and piano melodies dominated the Amazon Music stage. Although everything was fine, we missed something that would have taken the concert out of that pleasant, mid-afternoon calm.

Photo of Black Country, New Road by Sergio Albert, provided by the Primavera Sound 2025 organisation.

Isabella Lovestory

Perhaps for this reason, and to prepare for the performance of Fontaines D.C., we approached the main stage after passing through the Plenitude by Nitsa area, where we experienced the performance of Isabella Lovestory from Honduras. Accompanied by an inflatable unicorn, the Central American artist performed on a stage that was too small for her performance.. A punk version of Tokischa performing pop, reggaeton and dance music surprised a large proportion of the audience who had just come to see what was going on before the main stage performances began.

Photo of Isabella Lovestory by Clara Orozco, provided by the Primavera Sound 2025 organisation.

Fontaines D.C.

On these stages, Irish band Fontaines D.C. lit the fuse for the big names of the day in style, starting with “Romance”, whose arrangements were reminiscent of Depeche Mode. In an impeccable 17-song concert that covered their entire discography, the audience seemed to be fully engaged from the moment the first chords of “Jackie Down the Line” were heard. This was followed by other great songs such as “Big Shot”, “Big” and the dreamlike “Sundowner”, at which point the band began to express their clear support for the Palestinian cause.. The best was yet to come in a sublime last 25 minutes that started with the fast-paced “Boys In The Better Land“, to later launch into “In The Modern World” and “I Love You“, a song whose lyrics clearly expressed opposition to Israel’s genocide and support for the people of Palestine. With the devoted audience shouting “Free, free Palestine” for about two minutes, the syncopated “Starburster” was the icing on the cake of a remarkable concert. The only thing that prevented an atmosphere of total dedication to the Irish show was the passivity of a large part of the audience, who were just counting the minutes until Chappell Rohan began.

Photo of Fontaines D.C. by Eric Pàmies, provided by the Primavera Sound 2025 organisation.

Chappell Roan

A few minutes after 10 pm, the great diva of this edition appeared on stage: the North American Chappell Roan. Accompanied by a scenography that mixed ‘Tales from the Crypt‘ with an elf tale, she took to a majestic stage rarely seen at Primavera Sound, leaving the audience speechless. And more than that, she would surprise us with her excellent musical proposal, supported by a band formed entirely by women that elevated the pop proposal of songs such as “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl” or a great “Femininomenon” capable of raising a dead man back to life. In an era where everything seems to have to be new and instantaneous, it is true that the Missouri has managed to introduce the naive pop sound of Cyndi Lauper’s 1980s to new generations, or to recover the theatricality of Kate Bush by adapting her lyrics to the current theme of female empowerment. It’s a shame that her concert coincided with MJ Lenderman’s, because we would surely have enjoyed his show in its entirety with any other artist. It’s impossible not to dance to songs like “Naked in Manhattan“…

Photo of Chappell Roan by Clara Orozco, provided by the Primavera Sound 2025 organisation.

MJ Lenderman

And although it seemed crazy to leave Chappell Rohan behind in favour of the Cupra stage, we were pleasantly surprised to find it quite full, demonstrating the popularity of the former Wednesday member. His concert in the middle of the afternoon two years ago was one of the best we saw at Primavera Sound 2023. With the magnificent Manning Fireworks (2024) as a letter of introduction, the concert began with minor sound issues that were swiftly resolved, enabling North Carolina’s Americana-country-rock to unfold, showcasing the nuances that captivated the audience.

And it is precisely those nuances in lyrics and guitar effects (wah-wahs everywhere), along with an incredible band that accompanied him, that demonstrated why MJ Lenderman is different, but at the same time so similar to artists that it is impossible not to relate him to, such as Neil Young or the more recent Wilco or Ryan Adams. For the preservation of our memories, there are tracks like the pack “Wristwatch” – “Manning Fireworks” and a finale with songs from their previous albums like “I Ate Too Much at the Fair” and the guitar-heavy “Tastes Just Like It Costs“.

Photo of MJ Lenderman by Gisela Jané, provided by the Primavera Sound 2025 organisation.

ANOHNI and the Johnsons

There wasn’t time to process everything that had happened because ANOHNI and the Johnsons had started their concert upstairs. The first impression was striking: ANOHNI herself was dressed in a long white tunic, exactly the same as at her 2015 concert at the same festival. She was accompanied by an orchestra of up to ten musicians, and a majestic screen on which images of the seabed were projected. This set the tone for the emotional intensity and power of the next hour and a half of the concert. The English artist’s risky approach, which included short interviews with climate change specialists, made it difficult to engage with the proposal at first. However, the greater presence of songs from ANOHNI’s solo albums, such as the spectacular ‘4 Degrees‘, ‘Manta Ray‘ and the emotional ‘Hopelessness‘, made us fully embrace his vision for the concert.. The Forum’s esplanade was filled with an eerie silence as the audience listened to each song, which made the experience feel like something unique. The band’s performance was perfect, with the addition of a piano and a selection of impressive wind instruments. The voice of the British singer conveyed a depth of emotion, expressing a sense of suffering and unease that was palpable to the audience.

It is impossible to stick to one particular track: the a cappella rendition of “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child” with ANOHNI performing without any background images, the funk rhythms taking the lead in “It Must Change”, and the fluctuations in voice in “You Are My Sister“. Not to mention the grand finale with “Drone Bomb Me“, where the violin and electronic samples steal the spotlight from the singer, who appeared wearing a black veil with transparent borders over her face. Along with MJ Lenderman, he undoubtedly gave the greatest concert of this 25th Primavera Sound, allowing us to enjoy more than two hours of sublime music, as we had not done for a long time in a festival.

Photo of ANOHNI by Nomi Ruiz, provided by the Primavera Sound 2025 organisation.

Chat Pile

Perhaps because of the intense emotions we had experienced in recent hours, we were less convinced by the American Chat Pile show than we had been by their LPs. We can’t blame them for anything because their blend of hardcore and metal was musically perfect, with the incredible Raygun Busch excelling in his roles as singer and ‘mass entertainer’ (we’ll always remember his selection of the best train movies to play between songs when he realised they were performing on the Trainline stage).. With his impossible dance moves that made him look like a broken robot or a one-year-old baby just starting to walk, the Oklahoma native stole the show, haranguing the masses with rawer songs like ‘I Am Dog Now‘, reminiscent of Coal Chamber. The best performances were those where the music transcended the staging, such as ‘Masc‘, where Luther Manhole’s guitar assaulted our senses with its array of effects, and ‘Funny Man‘, where Cap’n Ron’s drums were a percussive weapon.

Photo of Chat Pile by Christian Bertrand, provided by the Primavera Sound 2025 organisation.

Confidence Man

We were exhausted from our journey on the legs, so going back to the main stages to see LCD Soundsystem seemed like an impossible dream. Instead, we decided to check out Confidence Man on the Amazon Music stage, basing this decision on the references from friends who had attended the opening day of 2023 and described the performance as fun and uninhibited. I can’t think of a better way to describe my first impression of the Australians than as a cross between late-90s bands like Aqua and the Dutch Vengaboys, but with a kitsch Eurovision twist.. Beyond all the bizarre things that appear on stage (light bras, various caprioles and flirtations between the band members), theirs is a very efficient and lively show (just over 40 minutes), which is impossible not to enjoy and get into. In short, it’s a perfect show for those who aren’t looking for pure, hard electronica at that time of night.

Photo of Confidence Man by Clara Orozco, provided by the Primavera Sound 2025 organisation.

Turnstile

For the writer of this Primavera Sound 2025 review, the icing on the cake and the perfect end to the party was going to be the concert by the American band Turnstile. The day before, they had released their fourth studio album, Never Enough (2025), which is possibly the most anticipated album of the year in the worldwide hardcore punk scene. It was precisely the song that gave name to the album that they started their show with, in what seemed like it was going to be a presentation setlist, but nothing further from reality, as the following songs would be “T.LC.” and “ENDLESS” from Glow On (2021) and the amazing ‘7‘, “Keep It Moving” and “Pushing Me Away” from their debut album Step 2 Rhythm (2013).

We had to wait until the second half of the concert for the new songs to feature more prominently in the setlist, particularly during the encores. This showcased new nuances in the Baltimore band’s sound palette, surprising us with their dream pop, electronica and even jazz influences. In ‘I Care‘, we can enjoy the greater presence of synthesizers, which fit perfectly into the band’s series of hits, such as ‘UNDERWATER BOI‘ and ‘HOLIDAY‘, as well as ‘LOOK OUT FOR ME‘, that was very reminiscent of Rage against the machine because of the guitars. Even during the encores, the well-known ‘Mystery‘ and ‘Blackout‘ returned to the delight of the majority, who were hungry for pogos. Meanwhile, the new songs ‘Seein’ Stars‘ and ‘Birds‘, which clearly continued in the style of their previous albums, served to close a good concert. Although it seemed to lack some volume at times, it confirmed that Turnstile are already the punk band for a generation.

Photo of Turnstile by Gisela Jané, provided by the Primavera Sound 2025 organisation.

In this way, another Primavera Sound came to an end. This edition will be remembered as the ‘The Powerpuff Girls’ edition, and it has confirmed the festival’s change in trend, with the three headliners enjoying superlative success in terms of audience numbers. This has also allowed us to enjoy great concerts by artists who are not so well known by the general public, such as MJ Lenderman, ANOHNI, Zaho de Sagazan and Midnight, among others.