Festival Coverage : The Great Escape - Day One
- Written by Rob Crozier
Welcome to Brighton and The Great Escape. 3 days, 30 venues, 350 artists. Living locally we knew the venues pretty well but still managed to find new ones to explore and others we would not normally venture into that had been transformed by the festival's presence.
Thursday lunchtime saw the festival kick off in bright sunshine, so what better place to start than a dark almost cellar-like venue known as The Haunt? We popped in to the see The Upskirts, an Aussie four piece that play loud psychedelic rock (always a great way to start any festival). Long haired, swirling sounds and excellent echoes from the lead guitar with long, rambling solos.
Walking from the venue you are reminded that you are also immersed in two other huge cultural festivals during May in Brighton and we stumble across some rather strange outdoor theatre company performing a version of Alice in Wonderland.
Next we were back indoors at The Blind Tiger, one of Brighton’s most popular venues, to see some Canadian artists that all hail from Ontario. These two bands are vastly different in style and genre with The Young Rivals performing straight up foot stomping punk rock whilst Tribe Called Red are three huge chaps who use Native American samples and scratching over looped dance beats. It sounds strange yet works so well with some amazing DJ skills and some high quality scratching alongside pounded out techno at 4pm. After that we needed a breather. We stopped for a Shakeaway (a Brighton milkshake) and a bagel whilst planning how to approach the evening's running order. One of the many delights of the festival is sitting and planning, debating if you have long enough to dash between venues and the likelihood of getting in.
On this first night we plumped for local rising star Tom Odell at the wonderfully intimate Warren. Many were disappointed as the queue was huge and we all had to wait to see what all the fuss was about. For me it was one of the most intimate, awesome displays of pure musical talent I have seen in a long time. Odell moved from ballads and piano solos which enchanted the crowd to beating seven bales of you know what out of his stand up piano like a possessed Jerry Lee Lewis. His cover of the Beatles classic 'Oh Darling' illustrated this point fully. It felt like we were witnessing the birth of a true star and he left us wanting more after his amazing performance of his big single 'Another Love'.
We moved to the Komedia bar comedy club, with its very low ceilings, to see Is Tropical, a very loud trio who bashed Anymore’. The Skints, a modern straight up reggae band who possess a great bass and drummer interchange bringing a slick reggae/dub sound came next. They finished with a few jump up ska numbers which sent the venue mental. Around
the same time and at other venues reports came back of good performances from King Krule, Crystal Fighters and
Melody's Echo Chamber.
out great four minute punk rock and were joined on stage by a female vocalist for their rousing last track ‘Dancing
As we stumbled from the venue dripping in sweat we made the short hop to the Green Door Store under the arches of Brighton station for our final instalment of the night. We witnessed an amazing stage performance by another rising Canadian star, Mac Demarco followed by an equally enlivening set from Sydney hip hop duo Jackie Onassis. This was the end of Day One.