Looking back on a packed weekend of music featuring Silver Gore, search results, Mandrake Handshake and the first official Hard of Hearing Stage at The Great Escape.
Above: Mandrake Handshake | All Photos: Hazel Blacher | Words: Lloyd Bolton
Last week, The Great Escape roared back in full force with a weekend of music from which we are still recovering. The city was abuzz with industry delegates and fans alike, rubbing shoulders with the 450+ artists who had descended upon the city for official shows, plus those performing at unaffiliated showcases hosted simultaneously across the city. With Brighton bands like The New Eves, Ideal Living and big long sun breaking out to reach national audiences, this year's festival felt particularly celebratory of the city's local music scene. At the same time, the festival's reputation as a launchpad of the biggest new artists, particularly those homegrown in the UK, felt secure in the hands of buzz acts like Westside Cowboy and Luvcat, names unanimously at the top of must-see lists across festivalgoers. The weekend was also a landmark moment for us at Hard of Hearing as we hosted our very first official showcase at the festival, where we saw an appropriately eclectic mix of brilliant sets from wing!, Spacestation, Rabbitfoot, SULK, Velvetine and Alien Chicks.
Thursday
Upon arrival in Brighton on the Thursday, it took only the brief trip from the station to the Hope and Ruin to find ourselves swept up in the social whirlwind of the festival, running into a mix of fellow press, broadcasters and artists outside a bustling showcase of Vienna's finest indie acts. The festival was already in full swing, having commenced on Wednesday night, but, like a lot of festivalgoers, we had elected to focus our energy on the busy Thursday to Saturday section of the festival.
Top of our agenda was an interview with Rabbitfoot, also fresh off the train, on the roof of the Grand Central pub just opposite the station, but we'll go into that another time. The first band we saw were Search Results, a scratchy trio from Ireland who came to be one of the highlights of the weekend. Though a vogue for the grandiose and orchestral has encouraged some brilliant new innovation in British alternative music, there is a lot to be said for the elemental approach of this group, who wind lyrics wittily around jagged guitar and bouncing drums across two-minute songs in which no moment is wasted. Our appetites have been suitably whetted for the release of the band's second album 'Go Mutant', which comes out this Friday.
Search Results
While it is theoretically possible to watch a near-constant stream of live music across The Great Escape, these showcases are only a core around which there is so much more to take advantage of. Following Search Results, a social run by the Scottish delegation at the festival hummed with hundreds of delegates, but drawing away from the madness, I found myself in the basement of The Old Ship hotel at a word-of-mouth whisky tasting hosted as part of the event. With the focus still in part on spotlighting the Scottish artists appearing over the weekend, we were served a selection of whiskies by grunge songwriter Indoor Foxes while sat incongruously between Glasgow-based artist Rubie – who would be performing at a Get In Her Ears showcase on Saturday – and ex-footballer and 5 Live commentator Pat Nevin, who held forth about topics including Ken Loach, homosexuality in men's football, and the old days of Postcard Records. Between bands, this is exactly the sort of bizarre situation you always hope to land in at The Great Escape.
Reemerging into the evening a little more refreshed, we caught Folk Bitch Trio, an enchanting Australian act whose angelic harmonies and captivatingly candid songwriting set the room alight. Overhearing praise for various sets of theirs over the weekend, it was clear that they were a favourite discovery for many. From here, we headed to see Bishopskin at One Church, trying not to think too hard about all the other clashing acts we'd had to spurn in doing so. Bishopskin were in tremendous form, vindicating our choice. The setting was of course perfect for the group's 21st Century exploration of faith and folk tradition, while the set seems to have evolved into something more party-ready, reminiscent of an act like HMLTD, while the rendition of 'Stella Splendens' was specifically reminiscent of the Madeline Chartrand track 'Ani-Kuni'. Tiger Nicholson's stage antics are always a memorable feature of Bishopskin shows, and he did not disappoint here, clambering up the pulpit, slapping his belly into the microphone in a vaudevillian-dadaistic turn, and dancing frenetically in what looked to be a homemade outfit adorned with Christian iconography.
Bishopskin
We then made it over to Green Door Store to see Silver Gore, who we discovered in the blossoming of a transformation from a live duo relying on an electronica backing track to a full-blooded band delivering an all-killer set of weirdo pop perfection. The word on the street is that the duo, comprised of Ava Gore and Ethan P. Flynn, have signed a major label deal, and as such have been perfecting this live set. Judging by this debut, it feels inevitable that this is a band we will be talking about a lot in the coming years.
We attempted to close the night with a set from R.I.P. Magic at Rossi Bar having loved the project's early shows at the end of last year, but alas we came up against our first major queue of the night, not helped by the fact that The Itch had been on just before. The line insurmountable, it felt like a sign to call it a night and save valuable energy for the next two of days.
Silver Gore
Friday
Fresh and not too hungover, in spite of the aforementioned whisky tasting, we were greeted with unrelenting sunshine on Friday afternoon. After a quick trip to Across The Tracks (best record store in Brighton), we saw The Klittens over at the Paganini Ballroom, a space that assimilates somewhat the cosy chaos of a hotel afterparty of the rock 'n' roll days of old. The Dutch group make great catchy indie songs, jangly but with a growling edge that gives the whole show a sense of urgency. A mid-set reading of Palestinian writer Mohammad El-Kurd's poem 'This Is Why We Dance' was a particularly moving instance of the pro-Palestinian solidarity that was felt at various junctures across the weekend.
We then headed over to The Beach, a hub of three stages on the literal beach that felt like a mini festival in its own right, complete with food trucks, two bars and a raft of portaloos. In the glaring sun, HONK blasted us with their clanging garage take on country music, root-fifth bass and wheeling lap steel completing the effect.
The rest of our afternoon was taken up with interviews with Velvetine and wing! (again, more on that later), so the next act we caught was Vienna's prime jangle rockers Laundromat Chicks. For those like us who have been enjoying new album 'Sometimes Posessed' since its release back in January, this was a set packed with hits. In a live setting, the songs took on a more forceful kick thanks to heavier drums and the urgency of the live setting, making for a great show but also allowing us to appreciate anew the ghostly fragility of the album recordings. With only a Ticketmaster hoarding behind them, indicating the brand's sponsorship of the stage, lead singer jokingly opened, "Hello, we are Ticketmaster from Vienna", speaking to the slight awkwardness at this festival of the coolest new bands rubbing shoulders with the more straight-laced corporate side of the music industry.
From the Beach, we then headed over to the end of Brighton Pier to Horatio's, where we couldn't have had a nicer spot to see Ideal Living and Mandrake Handshake set against a golden sunset. Ideal Living are an immense live force, weaving together ambitious structures with a tight rhythm section, a pair of horns, and deeply impactful lyrics delivered with visceral passion. Following this, Mandrake Handshake dazzled the bustling room with their cosmic psych freakout, a live action party driven by vivid synths and twin vocals that land somewhere between Stereolab and Goat.
The twin vocalists of Mandrake Handshake
To close out the night, we took advantage of a couple of the Alt Escape's 'official unofficial' showcases to fill in some gaps of acts we'd missed earlier in the day. The New Eves and pencil played to a packed out room at Pipeline at the behest of Strong Island Recordings, and we followed that showcase with a trip to Folklore Rooms where Blitzcat Records were in charge of late night activites. Here, Amsterdam trio Parker Fans absolutely stole the show. Their set is unmatchable for energy and freewheeling innovation, appropriating the language of 90s EDM as a texture over which lyrics are shouted, synthesisers are twiddled, and window ledges are clambered upon. The set draws more power from the live instrumentation that overlays the impossibly fast rhythm, and the bands' furious energy on stage radiated out among the audience who responded in kind. Following this, Blitzcat mainstays Flip Top Head closed out the night with their winding odysseys of folk instrumentation bent into weird alt-rock shapes. Having in the past seen venues struggle to work with this sprawling live sound, this is as good a point as any to praise the sound across the board at The Great Escape, where most sets were unmarred by the sound issues you might expect at a festival with so many artists being turned over on such a tight schedule.
Saturday
On Saturday, we celebrated our first ever official showcase at The Great Escape, a special moment capped off by a really exciting lineup. Up first were wing!, the instrumental trip-hop trio captivating London's live scene right now. The band give little away, performing in headphones to keep in perfect synchronicity as landscapes emerge out of Ableton pads and the rumblings of bass and drums that keep songs patiently evolving. The busy room was attentively drawn in, perhaps more so because of the absence of vocals, without which we grasp for meaning and imagery in the primordial murk of the music.
wing!
Following wing!, Icelandic alt rockers Spacestation took the stage. Again a thick crowd gathered to catch this mysterious group from far afield, and their presence captivated as guitars lashed with short feedback and vocals pierced in a mix of English and Icelandic as they played through a set comprised of songs from their newly released debut album 'Reykjavík Syndrome'. Then came Rabbitfoot, another act who have evidently massively impressed those who caught them for the first time over the weekend, having crafted their live set with countless Windmill shows over recent months. Their shows are truly breathtaking, a combination of cathartic vocals with clashing fiddle and synth adornments over punkish edges made unique by the sense of joy that emanates from the stage all the while. This is not the short-circuited cynical wit of another post-post-punk band but a liberated form of expression that is highly infectious.
Following Rabbitfoot, SULK put on a show of fuzzed out punk, their lineup recently fleshed out from a drums/guitar 2-piece to a quartet that packs an immense punch, strengthened by Lily Noble's absorbing lead vocals. Keeping up the energy, Velvetine brought their caterwauling show forth, a combination of paint-stripping moments of visceral force and fragile flashes of self-exposure. The room was getting sweaty.
Closing out the show, Alien Chicks had a crowd already baying for noise, and their relentless set of continuously surprising modulations on punk was the perfect close. At a festival full of industry professionals who tend to be relatively muted in the face of even the most exciting acts, it is relatively rare to see a mosh pit, but Alien Chicks brought it out of this crowd, who were evidently ready to leave it all on the floor before the festival wrapped up.
With official duties concluded at Alien Chicks, we then had time for one more act before the train home, and were glad to fit in a set from Radio Anorak, performing just round the corner at Manchester Street Arts Club. The recording project of Hugo Winder-Lind, its live incarnation featured members of big long sun (who we'd seen at Jubilee Square that lunchtime) and The New Eves and, as had been hastily agreed the night before, Elvis from Mandrake Handshake on improvised hand percussion. This was a brilliant set to close the weekend, drawing out the complex musical possibilities of the recorded work over which Winder-Lind spewed forth song and poetry in a poignant but often funny combination, at one point diverting the set into a cover of 'Stayin' Alive' that illuminated the powerful Glam possibilities of that song. It felt good to end the weekend on this particularly Brighton note. Speaking to Ella from The New Eves in the crowd, she explained that she had appreciated this year's festival more than previous editions because it had felt like more of a celebration of Brighton's own acts – The New Eves' own phenomenal sets aside, the festival also platformed the likes of big long sun just as their work has gained a certain level of national approval (the nod from Green Man Rising helping matters hugely) and Ideal Living who, as previously mentioned, played a storming set on the pier.
This year's festival felt exciting for a lot of reasons, and ultimately it seemed to catch all of its acts on their best form, ready to transform in a genuinely exciting way, whether as a new act breaking onto the scene, or a band evolved, like Bishopskin and Silver Gore. The Great Escape has left us excited for the next chapter.
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