Bilbao BBK 2013: Day Two

Rumours of a storm are circulating faster than limited edition Record Store Day vinyl, but down in the city of Bilbao we’re trying to maintain a façade of denial. We’re feeling so carefree that we conveniently ignore the fact the sky is putting on a similar dry ice installation to the one we saw earlier on today at the Guggenheim museum.

Half way through our upwards journey, it starts pissing it down. Predictably enough, we haven’t come prepared with any form of practical waterproofing material. The Vaccines aptly play ‘Wetsuit’ as we run for shelter. A bolt of lightening suddenly crashes down from the sky, worryingly close. Sensibly we decide to get under cover, and perhaps not so sensibly, we settle on a metal framed tent. Surrounded by damp, sweaty, festival-goers we try to enjoy ‘Post Break Up Sex’, but it’s not really the most appropriate song to wail in the company of strangers - especially when every time the thunder rumbles, people are screaming near-hysterically. The stage falls quiet, and for the next hour we are trapped in what is labeled as the ‘DJ Alai’ tent. Our Spanish friend tells us that ‘Alai’ is Basque for ‘joy’. How very ironic.

Just as Bilbao BBK begins to turn a bit Lord of the Flies, with bored punters throwing their drenched bodies down a muddy bank for entertainment, the storm eases off, and blinking in the emerging sunlight, we tentatively head towards Klaxons on the Heineken Stage. It comes at the ideal time, and as a sea of fetching green ponchos wave flashing batons and howl along to ‘Golden Skans’, we forget about our earlier traumas. It’s a nostalgic set, and new material is sounding mighty fine too, even sat alongside ‘It’s Not Over Yet’ and the tearing sirens of ‘Atlantis to Interzone’. Keira Knightley and Carl Barat are also enjoying themselves side of stage, and we get wind that Johnny Borrell is preparing some sort of onstage announcement for his set later. He’s going to talk in Basque. Goodness.

Much like the constant flow of Heineken being thrusted at us from every angle Kings of Leon are palatable enough on the main stage, but fail to enthuse us. Once we’ve roared along to ‘Sex On Fire’ we bail in favour of Johnny Borrell. Soon enough we overcome the hysteria of being metres away from his wincingly tight skinny jeans, and his set is actually Very Good Fun. We ballroom dance around the Live! Stage in a particularly odd turn of events. He’s not the cocky little so-and-so we expected, either, although his linguistic skills leave a lot to be desired. ‘The songs we’re playing tonight, we wrote in the Basque country,’ he says modestly, and thankfully in English. ‘I just wanted to say that tonight.’

It’s 2manydjs that prove to be Friday’s finest offering, though, and it’s the most fun, lively crowd that has gathered together yet. The set’s a blur of endless classics mashed together in flawless style. Wailing along to cuts from ‘As Heard On Radio Soulwax pt. 1’ is endless fun, and by Soulwax’s take on MGMT’s ‘Kids’, not even the saturated mud underfoot can dampen our mood. The rain in Spain, it turns out, doesn’t just fall on the plain after all, but we descend the misty mountain in higher spirits than ever, and rather sad that we’ve only got one night left in Bilbao.