Camera Obscura last played Barcelona's Primavera Sound festival in 2001.
Details of that gig haven't been preserved for posterity but it's unlikely that the band played to a bigger crowd than the huge one which greeted them when they took the stage at 11.30pm this year.
While some of the audience were probably taking advantage of the natural amphitheatre of the Ray Ban stage to shelter from the surprisingly bracing evening breeze, there's no doubt most of them were in attendance to enjoy a band which has made quantum leaps in its songwriting over the course of their third and fourth studio albums, released in 2006 and 2009.
Fifth album Desire Lines will be released in June and the new material premiered during Saturday night's performance, particularly Do It Again and Break It To You Gently, suggests that the band has lost none of its ability to write big and bold pop songs.
New material at festivals is of course a hard sell, and band leader Tracyann Campbell also delighted the audience with a clutch of classics, including a note-perfect French Navy, a beautifully aching Tears For Affairs, and the best sound of the evening – hundreds of Catalonians enthusiastically telling Lloyd that they're ready to be heartbroken.
Scottish Album of the Year 2013 contenders Django Django were a relatively late addition to the Primavera bill, and made an early evening appearance on the Main Stage. Their live show is certainly great fun, with singer Vincent Neff joking about the surprisingly cool temperatures and his bands' Devo-esque matching shirts. Of the musical presentation, Hail Bop and Default sound great, but other songs are stretched beyond their appropriate lifespan into wandering jams.
Camera Obscura interview: Saturday Arts
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