Cruïlla 2023 – 8 July 2023 (Parc del Forum – Barcelona)

After a Friday’s good night, with concerts by Sigur Rós and Carolina Durante, as well as the disappointing show by The Offspring, the last day of Cruïlla 2023 had Placebo and Moderat as clear headliners, as well as other names from the spanish scene such as Leiva and Amaia.

Placebo, Cruïlla 2023 – Photo taken by Xavi Torrent, courtesy of the Cruïlla Festival organisers.

Our arrival helped us get a good place in the front rows for the concert that was to open the main stage, that of the Mallorcan band Antònia Font. If their concert at the Palau Sant Jordi in the Catalan capital last October was a PARTY in all capital letters, their concert at the festival was a condensed version of that. Still in sunshine, with a somewhat uneven sound in terms of clarity, and with groups of listeners more interested in telling each other about their lives and miracles than in the concert itself, Pau Debón’s band were greasing the machinery as the songs of this ninth concert of their return/farewell tour passed by. Up to 25 topics, including sensitive “Cartes de Ramiro” , “Dins aquest iglú”, the controlled rage of “Astronauta rimador”, “Batiscafo Katiuscas”, “Alegria”, “Wa Yeah!”, “Calgary 88” or the collective ecstasy of ‘Viure sense tu‘, the perfect end to a concert that had the audience dancing non-stop. It is also worth noting that there were a number of families with children who did not fail to sing a single verse of all the songs, proving that the musical quarry must also be taken care of.

Antonia Font, Cruïlla 2023 – Photo courtesy of the Cruïlla Festival organisers

Given that the Intermon-Oxfam stage was once again overcrowded, and why not say how unattractive Leiva‘s offer was to this writer, apart from a few individual songs, we decided to go down to the Vueling stage to see what Amaia had to offer. She has clearly moved on from the stigma of the TV quiz show that made her famous, the singer from Pamplona gave a concert that went from less to more and in which she showed an incredible naturalness and ease especially since her excellent piano cover of “Fiebre” by Bad Gyal. As if it were the starting signal for a new concert, the kind of jota “Yamaguchi” and the cover of Los Planetas in “Santos que yo te pinté” served to showcase Amaia’s excellent vocal skills, while the most animated part would come in the final moments with ‘El encuentro‘ or the accelerated concatenation of ‘Sexo en la playa‘, ‘Así bailaba‘ and ‘La canción que no quiero cantarte‘. Undoubtedly one of the best concerts of this year’s edition, both for the voice of the Pamplona-born singer and for the party she threw in front of an adoring audience.

Amaia, Cruïlla 2023 – Photo courtesy of the Cruïlla Festival organisers

Staying until the end of their set meant we missed the opening bars of the night’s great totem, Placebo. In a concert that left us particularly cold, due to the choice of a setlist more suited to a venue than a festival, the band led by Brian Molko focused maily on their latest album Never Let Me Go (2022) in the first half of the concert, playing up to 8 songs from it with the exception of the already distant ‘Bionic‘ and ‘Too Many Friends‘. Maybe the best sound of the weekend on the main stage came in the second half of the show, when the guitars and effects took on a greater presence, starting with the signature riff of ‘For What It’s Worth” and then before the encores they played ‘Song To Say Goodbye‘, ‘The Bitter End‘ and ‘Infra-Red‘, leading everyone to believe that the encores would include some of their classics from Without You, I’m Nothing (1998). However, and in an incomprehensible decision in view of the incredible repertoire they have at their disposal, the encores would be a cover of ‘Shout” by Tears for Fears, monotonous “Fix Yourself” and the newly reborn (due to its presence in the final season of Stanger Things) cover of Kate Bush “Running up That Hill”, leaving out songs like ‘Every You Every Me‘, ‘Pure Morning‘, ‘Special K‘ or ‘English Summer Rain‘, which they played on their last tours. In just over three weeks they’ll be back in Spain as part of the Low Festival, so let’s see if they change their setlist or continue with this decaffeinated version of their career.

Moderat, Cruïlla 2023 – Photo by Xavi Torrent, courtesy of the Cruïlla festival organisers.

As Pavor Stelar are already Cruïlla’s Shellac, we stayed close to the main stage to close our festival with the German band Moderat. With a setlist that covered a wide range of their four studio albums, the show was a small version of the one that took place at the Sant Jordi club in November as part of the tour to promote their new album More D4ta (2022). With a sound quality that was more than acceptable and spectacular audio-visual displays on the screens, the end of their show was a compendium of their greatest hits like “Ghostmother”, “A New ErrorandBad Kingdom”, although that’s what our colleagues from other media told us, because on the 5th song we decided to change our minds and say goodbye to the festival with Shego’s concert in the tiny Johnnie Walker tent.

Shego, Cruïlla 2023 – Photo courtesy of the Cruïlla Festival organisers

What a concert full of attitude and rage from the Madrid band, who presented their first album Suerte Chica (2023) with flying colours, from which ‘Lucky‘, ‘Me lloro toda‘ and the catchy ‘Steak tar tar‘ stood out. Special mention for their versatility, which takes them closer to punk, rock or the most danceable rhythms, as seen in an amazing cover of “Pobre Diabla” by Don Omar with a superlative Raquel on vocals, or in their successful cover of Zahara‘s ‘Merichane‘, in which the 4 members interpret some of the song’s verses. Theirs was a cyclone and I’m sure we’ll be seeing them on bigger stages at most national festivals soon, because they’re a diamond in the rough.