The SonarHall closed the day edition with the presence of the German explorer Alva Noto always experimenting with the concept of sound and aesthetic, this time presenting his “Xerrox vol.2”

Animal Collective

And it was time for the last night of this year festival and one of the most incredible lineup night starting with the gift of this edition. Sónar was the only Festival that brought Animal Collective to Spain. The Animal band was highly expected with the presentation of their fantastic new record “Merriweather Post Pavilion”, the psychedelic atmosphere and the hypnotic surrounding of sounds that the band creates, makes this one of the best presentations of the Festival.

Fever Ray

Right after another of the higly awaited presentations that took place at the SonarPub presenting the new project of Karin Dreijer Andersson (The Knife) called Fever Ray. During the previous days you could hear people saying how much expectations they had about this show. Finally I have to say many people loved it and many hated it. The show was more of a theatrical presentation, where the costumes and the absence of light creates an dark and gothic atmosphere.

Orbital

Later it was time for one of the festival highlights the presence of maybe the biggest duo of the British dance scene Orbital. The Hartnoll brothers took the stage as if they were tennagers, excited and dancing opening with “Lush 3-1” and continued a session where they undusted their wide repertoir of dance music that still sounds as fresh today.

Crystal Castles

But the best moment was just about to happen at the big SonarPub stage were the crowd packed the space to see the higly expected concert of Crystal Castles. At this show everything happened. Alice Glass took the stage as energetic, frenetic and explosive as usual, the sound was off, it actually didnt work and the audience couldn’t hear anything at all, but the show continued and Alice was singing and screaming even though the sound was off. The audience started to get mad and scream to the technicians but the concert was still on going. It was something that I have never seen in Sónar before. Crystal Castles played song after song without noticing or caring about the problem and Alice jumped to the public and did a bit of crowd surfing meanwhile the huge crowd was atonished and mad.

Crystal Castles

After the approach to the public Alice rumbled to the floor, felt down, and suddenly jumps again into the stage and start to dismantle and throw the drum set to the technicians and security guards. The guards were not used to this kind of attitude and start a fight with the band on stage. Yes, all this happened. And it was amazing, maybe the best of the whole Sónar, of course many people were dissapointed because they couldn’t hear or see anything, but it was something really out of the normal and for sure something that people will talk about and remember. I think Crystal Castles did an incredible show and even without sound their performance was great. Of course after all this there was a bit of tension between the organization and the band, but I must say that these kind of things are just part of the show and also are great things that happen not backstage but in front of the people who attended.

So this edition of Sonar was really complete, from the most experimental to the traditional roots passing through the party stage to end up with some punk. And once again the Sónar crew were so gentle and kind that make it a pleasure to attend the festival. But Sónar is like this, not just about the music but 3 days like a new babylon where good things happen…..

SONAR 2009
Date: June 18th, 19th, 20th, 2009
Place: CCCB, MACBA, Centre d’art Santa Monica
Address: Montalegre 5, 08001 Barcelona
https://www.sonar.es