Great Escape – Day 3
The Great Escape Diary – Day 3
After busing to and from Eastbourne for a prior commitment I ran past the ‘secret’ Babyshambles gig that was taking place outside of Audio and to the Spiegeltent for the last minute acoustic set by Ben Kweller. Kweller seemed happy and at ease, flatterd by the sing-a-long on tracks like On My Way and Walk On Me, and he closed his little performance with rousing renditions of new track Fight and country number Penny on the Track.
I then hurried over to Volks to catch Threatmantics, a band I’ve known for a short while and this is the guitarist Ceri’s farewell tour, so, in lieu of me possibly not making it for the Cardiff based band’s final gig with this line-up at the end of May, I made sure I didn’t miss them here. Threatmantics make music that’s direct, punchy, cacophonous and at the same time very sweet and innocent; this is apparent on tracks like new song Apple Tree or the almighty, anthemic Don’t Care.
With my running shoes on I dashed to the King & Queens to catch Colourmusic, a band from Oklahama (though one member’s actually from York), who are currently my favourite contemporary act. This set was a wall of glorious sound, exploding from the speakers and threatening the ear-drums, but I’d be pretty happy if Colourmusic was the last thing I ever heard. In amongst an array of new songs were some of the fantastically quirky yet blistering tracks from their recent album, including Rock and Roll Polar Bear and the air-punchingly, uplifting, robo-mantra of Yes!
I then dashed back to the seafront and managed to catch Ben Kweller again, this time with full band, and he again performed another joyous batch of songs across his four records so far. Afterwards I ducked out quickly and nipped down the front to the Honeyclub where I found a high perch in the packed club to watch Idlewild, a band who at one time seemed on the verge of becoming stadium-filling pop-rockers, but went a bit maudlin, then lead singer Roddy Woomble grew a big beard and recorded a few down-beat solo albums and now their back. This set leant heavily on both earlier, noisier fare whilst throwing in a couple of new songs – that seem to have that pop-rock sensibility that won them many new fans on The Remote Part – and bigger hits like You Held The World In Your Arms.
Betty and the Werewolves were playing their brand of punkish surf-rock upstairs in the Fortune of War, so I thought I’d check that out, but then began drinking some whiskey that was given to me by an Italian and now it’s Sunday morning…
This year’s Great Escape had many fantastic acts dispersed reasonably well across the city, sometimes you had to make a commitment to see an act you weren’t planning on seeing in order to guarantee you’d see a bigger name band; but this seemed to lead to many pleasant surprises. Ultimately the Great Escape is a brilliant showcase for a lot of new, up and coming or ‘best kept secret’ bands that really deserve, or are about to get, their shot at the limelight and the bars, pubs, theatres and clubs of Brighton are some of the finest places to get your first aural peek at the best new music.
