Bilbao BBK 2013: Day Three

Yesterday was dominated by lightening bolts, drizzle and mud-sliding Brits – who seemed to teem out of nowhere at the first sign they were in their natural habitat. Today there’s no storm, though, and the city of Bilbao is tucked up serenely under a layer of mist. The sun is shining up the mountain, and first we head over to the woodland Live! Stage to catch The Bots. There’s a modest, but highly-charged crowd gathered, and the duo’s blend of rock n’ roll with a raw punk-edged sensibility is going down a treat. Singer Mikaiah Lei is an entertainer all right, delighting with vocal yelps and flinging himself around stage to the frentic ‘Vanity’. It’s a hard-hitting winner of a set.

Before Vampire Weekend we manage to spot The Hives in their towels, and much to our delight, Tre Cool, strutting onto the site with a wheely suitcase. Despite all this prior excitement, Vampire Weekend are truly magical in the festival’s mountainous setting, and prove Saturday’s highlight. An absolutely mammoth crowd belts out their finest vocal efforts for ‘Horchata’, and flashing lights syncopate in time with their claps during ‘Oxford Comma’. Ezra Koenig looks reluctant to depart, and their final song is reappropriated especially for tonight; ‘a song about leaving Bilbao tonight.’. ‘Walcott’ closes one of our favourite sets of the weekend in polished style.

Hot-footing it over to Twin Shadow, back in the woodland, we dance our socks off to the ethereal ‘Golden Light’ and the clunking industrial rhythms of ‘You Call Me On’, along with a bustling crowd. The trees are peppered with strips of green light, and a great number of punters are quite happy to bask in the afterglow. We want to cram in as much dancing as we can before Green Day hit their stride over on the main stage, though.

Fleeing Twin Shadow’s dance-athon half way through feels like a shame, but still, a serious nostalgia-trip is in order. Green Day hit the spot marking memory lane with a set chock with hits from ‘American Idiot’, classics from ‘Dookie’, and brilliantly cheesy cover versions. For no apparent reason they fire loo roll from onstage cannons – well, you know, why not? Billie Joe Armstrong leads an extremely spur of the moment cover of ‘Highway To Hell’ by AC/DC as the crowd respond with cries of ‘Olé’. Donning colourful bras and wigs, Green Day also crack out a breakneck whistlestop medley including ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life’, ‘Break on Through (To The Other Side)’ and ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’. It’s ‘Basket Case’ that prompts the highest levels of excitement, though. Green Day wrap up Bilbao BBK with ‘Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)’, and true to the lyrics, we have had the time of our life this weekend.