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.

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.

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 21^st 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.

We then made it over to Green Door Store to see Silver Gore, who we discovered in the blossoming of a transformation from live duo with electronica backing track into 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 have been perfecting a their sound on a scale to match. Judging by this debut, it feels inevitable that this is an act 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. 

Friday

Fresh and not too hungover, despite 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 echoes somewhat the cosy chaos of a rock ‘n’ roll hotel afterparty of days gone by. The Dutch group make great catchy indie songs, jangly but with a growling edge that gives the whole show a sense of urgency. Then, towards the end of the set, a 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.

Next, we 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 by 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 ‘Sometimes Posessed’ since the album’s 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 performance, making for a great show while 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 Tobias Hammermüller jokingly opened, “Hello, we are Ticketmaster from Vienna”, speaking to the inevitable static that comes with the coolest new bands rubbing shoulders with the 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 found a nicer spot to see Ideal Living and Mandrake Handshake, set as they were 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.

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 proceedings. Here, Amsterdam trio Parker Fans absolutely stole the show. Their set is unmatchable in energy and freewheeling innovation, appropriating the language of 90s techno 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 almost all the sets we caught seemed 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. We caught big long sun over on Jubilee Square at noon to kick off the day in style and then headed over to Revenge, our base for the afternoon. 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, which 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.

Following wing!, Icelandic alt rockers Spacestation took the stage. Again a thick crowd gathered to catch this breakout group from a little farther afield. Their presence captivated as guitars lashed with short feedback and vocals pierced in a mix of English and Icelandic through a set drawn 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 last 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.

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. Then, 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 came on to a crowd already exactly where they wanted them. Their relentless set of continuously surprising modulations on punk was the perfect close. At a festival busy with 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 weekend 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 and Toma Sapir, its live incarnation featured members of big long sun and The New Eves and, as had been hastily agreed the night before, Elvis from Mandrake Handshake, who improvised hand percussion. This was a brilliant set to close the weekend, drawing out the complex musical possibilities suggested by the recorded work. Winder-Lind spewed forth song and poetry with the perfect balance of irreverence and sincerity, 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 a distinctively Brighton note and a reminder that this prolific scene is continuing to offer us so much great music right now.

This year’s festival was exciting for us for a lot of reasons, and ultimately it seemed to catch all of its acts on their best form – that point of transformation into something great, whether as a new act just breaking onto the scene, like wing! or Rabbitfoot, or a band evolving into its next phase, as was the case with Bishopskin and Silver Gore. The weekend was The Great Escape at its best: four days setting the tone of the future of cutting edge music and whetting appetites for this next chapter.