THE great escape festival

Thursday 17th May Opening day of the festival and the weather is fine so far. YourCodeNameIs:Milo are playing a low key secret gig a fraction after midday in the Albert, a small pub situated near the station. It’s early and not a lot of people are in attendance but they play a combusted set of Queens of the Stone Age style rock that concludes with ‘All roads to Fault’. Seeing a band play in a toy museum is a little twee and slightly surreal to begin with, but as time progresses it makes more and more sense that the acoustic guitar and vocal duo Peggy Sue and the Pirates are playing here, as their music also has these traits in abundance. Now it’s time to see a gig that is officially part of the festival, and Kubichek are playing at Zap. Unfortunetly they just seem to be a little bit too rigid on stage and are somewhat boring to both hear and look at. They also remind me a bit too much of Joy Division. Later I see Airborne Toxic Event- a band I’d never heard of before walking into the venue, and I’m suitably impressed by what’s in front of me. They’re an American band that are crammed into the corner of the venue on a tiny stage. Occasionally violin lines swirl over dark, almost noirish folk and the band sound partly like The Arcade Fire. No doubt it is only a question of time until more people discover them, and that they’ll be playing much larger venues very soon. Victorian English Gentlemans Club follow, and this Cardiff three piece play an entertaining set full of art punk songs that attack the ears, seam there way straight into your consciousness, and stay there long after the song has finished. Before hot footing it across town, I pop into the Pavilion Theatre to see These New Puritans play an extremely short set, demonstrating how much promise they have. It would be easy to write them off as a fashion based band that are just suitable for high class scenesters too sophisticated for New Rave. 80’s style minimal keyboard melds its way onto Joy Division style thumping bass lines while the song ‘Elvis’ gets the best reception of their set. Headlining the venue are the Archie Bronson Outfit, who play a set full of songs from the much critically acclaimed ‘Der Dang, Der Dang’ album. There music has a blues rock stomp to it and they occasionally drift into sounding like The Black Keys. ‘Cherry Lips’ appears to be the set highlight for most. The Festival for the day is over, but there are a load of club nights still drifting onto early morning a lot of which feature bands. Around the corner, the queue into the Komedia is gigantic in size. This isn’t exactly surprising when you consider what two bands are playing. Both are considered ‘must sees’ by a lot of people, they’re both bands that are really starting to grab peoples attention in recent months; Foals and Gallows. Foals are mathematical geniuses; their songs are danceable and fresh sounding compared to many of the other bands currently doing the rounds. They take the stage to a gratuitously warm reception and launch into playing the “B.A.N.A.N.A.S” section of Gwen Stefani’s ‘Hollaback Girl’. If other bands did this it may have seemed a little cheesy, but Foals manage to pull it off with aplomb. What is surprising is that athough Gallows have been touted as saviours that are going to shake things up and save us from identikit guitar bands, the venue has more room to move around in when they take the stage then it did 30 minutes ago. From the initial chords it’s glaringly obvious that Gallows are in a strop, but yet still deliver an energetic performance, albeit one that is littered with technical faults and accidents. The performance is haywire; people are accidentally running into each other on stage, resulting in one member being knocked out. The singer baits both the audience and the organisers before immersing himself deep into the crowd, where the front few rows are literally going haywire. Beyond this they are a band that seem to lack tunes that the listener can grab hold of, but on the flip side there live show is both explosive and thoroughly enjoyable. Your browser may not support display of this image. Rumour of the day: The Gossip and The Scissor Sisters are both in town filming TV programmes. Both bands were previously rumoured to be playing secret club gigs late at night, but neither did. . Friday 18th May Second Day in and the weather’s not as good. Foals are supposed to be playing a secret gig (that actually isn’t all that secret) on a Carousel on the seafront, but this gets moved to a later time and a different location due to weather conditions - which is a little depressing, as seeing Foals play on a carousel would have been something rather quite special. Therefore the first band I see today is The Pistolas at Audio. They give an energetic performance and supply a set brimming with danceable and catchy punk funk littered with the occasional classic Michael Jackson style “ooh’s” and “ee’s”. I walk away with the feeling that although I wasn’t aware of them to begin with, I definitely want to find out more. 586 are next on my list of bands to see and they are playing the slot vacated by Polytechnic. I had aimed to catch them yesterday but had just missed them. They’re an acquired taste, playing a set of skewed pop songs that have a slight mid nineties Britpop feel. They are going to be too art school / eccentric for some. The Video Nasties are playing to a small audience in the very large Corn Exchange - well it looks small, as the venue is well over a 1000 in capacity. The performance is also hindered by the fact that the sound is very bad, and it’s hard not leaving with the impression that in a smaller venue they would have been so much better. Before turning to go I pop in to see Brighton’s very own Help She Can’t Swim at the Arc. Their new songs aren’t as jagged as the old ones, and it’s glaringly obvious that the groups dynamics have changed dramatically. However, both new and old are greeted with aplomb, especially ‘Bunty VS Beano’ with its lyrics concerning the boy / girl gender divide and the slightly more keyboard heavy ‘Hospital Drama’. Your browser may not support display of this image. Birmingham trio Untitled Musical Project are playing five minutes round the corner and they remind me of lyrical geniuses Mclusky more than anyone; they have that similar way with words, plus their rhythm section isn’t bad either. I hot footed it back over to the corn exchange for Art Brut who were probably the highlight of the festival for me. You can never go far wrong with Art Brut, and although the new material aired is strong, as expected it’s the old favourites like ‘Emily Kane’ and ‘Formed a band’ that receive the warmest reception. Club nights follow, and on the outskirts of town Transgressive records are holding a party at the C2, with (obviously) some of their bands playing. Mechanical Bride are first on, and it takes an age for them to sound check. This forces everything back over an hour and the audience aren’t happy, especially as everyone is more or less here to see Foals who are really becoming the must see band of the festival. Mechanical Bride are booed more or less though out there performance, and their gentle folkish songs would have been more suited to a smaller venue full of people who actually wanted to see them. Battle fair better and do what they are expected to, which is play a melodic set that is neither life changing or even slightly memorable. Foals take to the stage for the third time of the festival (earlier they played a low key gig in a bar on the pier), and although they play a similar set to last nights, when the audience is lapping it up quicker than a kitten to cream, why would you change it too much? The sun is due to start rising soon after they finish and it’s apparent that most people are too tired to stay for The Holloways. I decide to take a similar route and escape for some well needed sleep. . Saturday 19th May Third and final day of the festival and it’s an early start. I head straight for Sumo as Artrocker have bands playing there from midday onwards, and as much of today is spent inside a basement venue I can’t really make a comment about the weather this time round. Your browser may not support display of this image. We Are The Physics open, and they play a set chocker full of danceable indie that, whilst not be revolutionary, is at least easy on the ear. New Zealanders Die Die Die play abrasive punk which at one time involves the singer manically rolling round the floor. Ratt:Att:Agg feature Rory, who used to be in the sorely missed Test Icicles, and seeing his new band reminds me how great the old one was. Tigerforce are a duo that are really quite special; they remind me of a more compact Help She Can’t Swim that rely on computers for beats, and at times they even sound slightly like M.I.A. Brighton’s very own Shrag follow, and they have a slight resemblance to a wonkier and slightly more electro version of The Pipettes. Afternoon headliners MIT are German and completely bonkers; their music is a mixture of pulsating keyboard lines and danceable beats. There’s more choice in the evening but I end up at Audio to see Australians Sex Panther play a set of blues fuelled riot grrrl influenced songs. They may not be pushing the envelope, but everything doesn’t always need to be shiny and new. Being there also means I get the chance to see the previously mentioned Die Die Die play for a second time a handful of hours after the first. It’s only now that things are starting to become a little sticky, and today there are a lot of problems with queues outside of venues. A lot of bands people want to see are playing small venues which are a quarter or even less of the size that they normally would. Understandably a lot of people are unhappy and the decision of who to see - and who to miss is more difficult than ever. Pick the wrong one and there is a small chance that you won’t see anyone you really want to see. Instead of staying in one venue I plump for moving round and seeing where I end up. Local heroes and much talked about Maths Class are playing a set back over at Sumo and their music is a mixture of Ex Models style noise, the keyboard melodies of Help she can’t swim, a snippet of Test icicles style energy and lyrics that are spilled out over the top. Future of the Left follow, who are a mixture of ex Mclusky members and ex Jar Crew members. Future of the Left sound like Mclusky, and seeing as I like Mclusky a lot, I like Future of the Left a lot too. Your browser may not support display of this image. To end the festival are two bands that both played last year, far lower down the bill and in far smaller venues. Vincent Vincent and The Villains are a unique commodity; they don’t really fit into any scene, and can’t be compared to any other current band around at the moment. Their music takes influence from the past - 50’s and 60’s rockabilly groups in particular - without really trying to push anything forwards. Good Shoes are headlining and are a band that a lot of people want to see, so understandably the size of the queue and the wait to get in are both long. Having no other gig scheduled to run at the same time only makes the que longer, and a lot of people are frustrated. However, those who manage to worm their way inside cannot fail to be pleased. In the last year or so Good Shoes have grown musically; their songs have a few more dynamics than they once did and they do look far more comfortable on stage. CONCLUSION The Great Escape festival is a great way to discover new bands and offers excellent value for money compared to the many other festivals out there. But like any other festival it does have it’s problems; this year there were a lot of bands pulling out that weren’t being replaced with others. This would have been a major problem and headache if it wasn’t for the excellent text service available notifying people of the cancellations hours before the onstage time. There was also a problem with queues and capacity of venues, but once again there is always going to be this problem with an urban festival. It’s not going to change because there’ll always be must - see bands who everybody will try to catch. The 2nd year was an improvement on the first, but if the third year is even better then it will surely be unmissable.