Julian Casablancas calls The Smile at Primavera the best show in years

The Smile played Primavera Sound at the Parc del Fòrum in Barcelona on Friday 10 June, on the Cupra stage after The Strokes had headlined. The next day Julian Casablancas, The Strokes' singer, posted a short video of their set on Instagram. Had my fucking mind blown yesterday, best show i've seen in YEARS², he wrote, and he likened it to modern phillip glass with best of Radiohead or something… idk².

The set was mostly A Light for Attracting Attention, with three songs that are not on it, “Colours Fly”, “Bodies Laughing” and “Just Eyes and Mouth”, and Thom Yorke's “Feeling Pulled Apart by Horses” to close. “Bodies Laughing” had been first played in Berlin earlier in the tour.

Luke Cartledge, reviewing the night for Loud And Quiet, describes a crowd still listening closely to a set that began after midnight, deep into the festival's second weekend, and Yorke and Jonny Greenwood looking as relaxed as they had in years, though the band said little between songs. The revelation for him was Tom Skinner, whose drumming, busy but never showy, held the band together while Yorke and Greenwood swapped bass, guitar and keyboards around him.

Setlist