Festival Coverage : The Great Escape - Day 2
- Written by Rob Crozier
Day 2 arrives and we head off, bleary eyed but ready for the fray, to see Dan Croll and his upbeat acoustic set. We know he is playing again tonight but we fear we will miss him. We plump for Congo Natty’s soothing acoustic reggae hoping he will soothe us as last night’s excesses are still very much with us. Unfortunately, Natty’s appearance has stopped us from entering upstairs at the Komedia with their Dutch bands theme so we miss Jacco Gardner playing to a packed crowd.
Following Natty come is high energy outfit Skip & Die. The amazing female lead has boundless energy and crazy dress sense. Complete with euro mullet hairstyles they manage to banish any sense of a hangover. Downstairs its carnival time with Heat Wave as they attempt to bring us the atmosphere of Trinidad and Notting Hill. His first job is to hand out hundreds of free whistles and urge us to party. This is just what we need.
Refreshed we’re ready for the evening session at Audio. The stunning Andreya Triana treats us to a set of beautiful melodies. Her rich, soulful and mellifluous voice together with the accompaniment of jazzy guitar chords and lyrics with a hint of melancholy, leave the crowd in happy awe of this talented and personable performer who has in recent years collaborated with the likes of Bonobo and Flying Lotus. Next on stage at Audio is the enigmatic cross-dressing rapper and poet from the States, Mykki Blanco, entertaining the crowd with a high energy performance, and rapping amusing staccato lyrics over heavy bass and multi-layered electronic beats.
We squeeze into Coalition on Brighton seafront to catch Unknown Mortal Orchestra. We catch the instrumental psychedelic guitar outfit indulging in sweeping feedback and straight up rock guitar that feeds the expectant crowd. We loved the exhibitionism of the guitar being played over one shoulder and the crazy inversions being thrown out! They made more noise than a three piece should and the place was packed - the biggest crowd witnessed so far. We notice that local celeb Zoë Ball is also enjoying the proceedings.
We do experience problems with the size of the crowds as we queue and so miss Aussie star Iggy Azalea, despite giving
ourselves an hour before she is due on. Undeterred we head for the Brighton Dome theatre to try and catch Mikal Cronin but we are denied due to the huge queues so we head back to Coalition. Here we manage to catch Rainy Milo, a London-based female singer of soul dance backed by just a bass player and drummer. Next on is Clean Bandit, a huge band featuring strings including violin and cello along with rappers and lead female vocals producing blissed out beats ranging from hip hop with soulful harmonies and soaring strings. They played a great set to an incredible, packed crowd. The end of the night arrives and we squeeze out on to the Friday night seafront thinking ahead to the treasures of the final day.