Great Escape Festival 2009

Photo by Dan Dennison (dnnsn.com)

The 4th Great Escape Festival brought joy aplenty to a rainy mid-May in Brighton. After last year’s experience spending valuable gig time stood in queues, I decided this year to try beating the queues by seeing smaller acts. Research was required, especially seeing as this year seemed to be quite a mixed bag in terms of quality of acts for some reason (seriously). Here are the results:

Thursday

Nullifier were 8 energetic blokes bouncing around the stage in the Freebutt and were full of promise. With what must have been only 30 or so people in the room, it was pretty easy for the lead singer to get in amongst the crowd, as he kept coming off the stage. The place may have stunk of poo, but Nullifier certainly did not with their wacky keyboard sounds which well suited their song about space travel “Burn up on ReEntry”, which was the highlight of the set. One for signing and nurturing for sure.

Mean Poppa Lean were a change to the originally billed band at Prince Albert. Christian, the lead singer was suitably dressed for the occasion with his silky shirt, short shorts and curtain waistcoat. Mean Poppa Lean got the crowd going with their funky rock, accompanied by the semi naked Horny Brassholes. The song “Sheryl Crow” one of the best of the set; however the last song elevated the hotness of the room to the max with “Hot Times, How Hot”. Christian implored the crowd to get dancing, sing along and literally get down to the floor.  Each band member got introduced and did a solo. Very good, with some mild elements reminiscent of Fun Lovin’ Criminals sort of but mostly funky goodness.

On arrival at Ocean Rooms, we endured Cursive; an American rock band who clearly had some kind of small following, but the emphasis being on small. It was all about the next act on.

Cockandbullkid had the crowd in the basement of Ocean Rooms instant attention as soon as first track “Impossible” started off this exciting set, despite her microphone not even being on. Anita held the audience in captivation throughout with her flawless voice belting out soulful electro pop with such effortless style; a true star performer holding everyone’s gaze.  Anita Blay’s set excited me further about her debut album, songs with catchy beats and poignant lyrics which reflect her true artistic talents. With a collection of songs including “Sinners”, “On My Own” and “I’m Not Sorry”, Cockandbullkid is definitely something to keep an eye out for; which is exactly what the Great Escape is about.

We came into the Komedia to see the end of The Rumblestrips gig. After previously seeing them before it was evermore evident what rousing crowd-pleasers they are and a great way to end the first night.

Friday

Betty And The Werewolves at The Hope were a great first act of the night to see. Defying the odds playing on a somehow wobbly stage and avoiding keyboard accidents; Betty And The Werewolves were clearly excited to be there (so much so they forgot the name of one of their songs) and it showed in their sterling performance.  New single “David Cassidy” was one of the highlights, as well as “Heathcliff” and “Wind-Up. They proved to be much more than your average girls-with-guitar bands and were very enjoyable; enough to get the audience howling for more.

My Tiger My Timing brought their “wonky pop music” to the Ocean Rooms basement which gradually got busier. MTMT are the kind of band that swap instruments, all have vocal input and generally muck in.  “This is Not the Fire”, their debut single (Produced by Andy Spence of New Young Pony Club) is a great indie/pop single, which like most of their songs is layer upon layer of mesmerizing rhythms, melodies and harmonies. Hopefully there are many good things to come from this band.

Canadian Post-Punk band We Are Wolves (so many wolf related bands this year) got better more towards the end of the set, although for most of their set they were pretty average – they sounded better on their Myspace page. Time for a drink…

Ulterior were the sorriest sight ever. I have never seen so few people at a gig. Looking and sounding like some awful throwback band (leather trousers, long hair errrrgh), we went upstairs to see who else was playing in the hope of something better. Little did we know that we had swapped one throwback with another. For it was Hot Leg; Justin Hawkins’ new band which just sounded like another Darkness rehash complete with usual dodgy costumes. Dear oh dear, give it up Hawkins! To be fair there was bigger crowd than downstairs. However I’m sure they were there probably for the sake of having a gawp at Mr Hawkins. We decided to leave and head to Cella Sanctuary in Hove, where there was a late night bar and DJ. I don’t think I have ever seen someone getting so into DJing from a laptop. It was a good venue but pretty dead so that was the end of Friday night.

Saturday

Saturday’s Great Escape entertainment began at Hector’s House, where we went to see Tommy Tokyo & Starving for my Gravy, a Norwegian band with a similar sound to Modest Mouse except they are stranger and have a bit more of a diverse sound. It’s not everyday you have a man shouting down a megaphone in the pub.

Then it was off to Volks on the seafront for The Voluntary Butler Scheme, one man band Rob Jones with his looping device in order to create songs with many layers of quirky instruments’, surface tapping and backing vocals to sing along to. His songs left us all grinning like Cheshire cats, with his charming lyrics. There is something of Jarvis Cocker about Rob Jones. One of my favourites of the weekend, who I shall definitely investigate further.

At the Hope, unsigned band Televised Crimewave brought a welcomed element of chaos. Compared to The Smiths and Blur, I could see the slight resemblance in their sound. Front man Daniel Wilson was at one with the crowd; jumping and leaping around off stage like Damon Albarn in the early days of Blur. One for those who like it raw and loud should definitely check them out.

Unfortunately completely unrelated to the performance, I was pretty distracted from Official Secrets Act due to it being so overly hot! Impressively the band played on despite sweatbox conditions. If you like British New Wave then check them out. We left their sweltering headline set and embraced the cool Brighton air.

Considering we did not have to queue once at all to see any of the bands shows that it still is possible to catch any many upcoming and new bands as possible. To be honest, if you’re trying to see more established acts like Kasabian and Idlewild at a new music festival then you’re kind of missing the point; go see them on tour! Although it is a gamble seeing unsigned/newly signed acts, when you do find a new band you like then great but even if you don’t  then you’re free to roam with the wristband of dreams and see another (unless like with Hot Leg you want the cheap laugh option).

Words: The Mexican