Great Escape Festival 2008 Review – Day 1
Here is the first review from the Great Escape festival, some of the highlights from the first day. We saw Bon Iver, Runaway Sons, AA Bondy, Sunset Rubdown, Okkervil River, a massive queue, Arun Ghosh, Nathan ‘Flutebox’ Lee and The Ting Tings. What a night! We also have reviews of day 2 and the third day.
18:00 – The evening begins
We started off by wandering down to the pier to pick up our festival wristbands, fortunately there was no queue and on the way down we observed Brighton had turned into Brooklyn or Shoreditch. More skinny jeans than you can shake a stick at, checked shirts a-plenty, the trendies and musos had turned out in force. There’s always a few, but tonight there’s nobody else in sight.
En route we also passed the xfm van, and a mobile recording studio outside the Pressure Point with Bon Iver inside. Then it was time to queue outside the Pressure Point for…
19:30 Bon Iver @ The Pressure Point
We started off by checking out one of the most exciting new bands from the US, the Wisconsin based Bon Iver. There’s been a lot of talk online of how front man Justin Vernon holed up in a cabin for 6 months to write the new album, and the place was packed – unusual for such an early performance.
Bon Iver sound like a cross between Iron and Wine and TV on the Radio. Live their set is divided between calm quiet moments and loud guitar based freak outs, often descending into organised chaos by the end. Whilst the band are mainly just Justin on record, live he is supported by a drummer and another guitarist and they can make quite a sound.
They got the audience very involved as well, getting everyone to sing along to parts of ‘The Wolves’ which worked surprisingly well. At the end of the gig the band left the stage and came down into the crowd to perform ‘Skinny Love’ which was a great touch and made it feel like the end of a great night, rather than the beginning.
Here’s a video someone in the crowd took of that encore (they were right in front of the band so its very clear):
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Hard to beat this one! Shame the place was so packed nobody could see, and the couple snogging in front of me and the guys talking loudly to the left didn’t help either, but still..
The album ‘For Emma, Long Ago‘ has had the best reviews this year according to metacritic, check out the band’s myspace to sample, and listen to a full length gig over on NPR.
20:15 On the move…and why its best to stay put
After a great start we headed over to The Pavillion Theatre by the dome for the rest of the first part of the night. Sometimes it’s wise to pick one band, get there early and stick with them and see what else comes your way.
By now we heard the Concorde 2 was full what with the Vampire Weekend gig at 10, and I imagine Iron and Wine had drawn a good sized crowd as well. We opted to see Okkervil River at 10:15 so getting into the Pavillion Theatre was the best plan. En route we popped into the Unitarian Church and caught a glimpse of Polly Scattergold. Then it was into a thankfully spacious Pavillion Theatre to catch the end of the unlisted and dreadfully run of the mill Runaway Sons. Think The Kinks being reinterpreted by The Sterophonics … not good.
20:45 AA Bondy @ The Pavillion Theatre
AA Bondy is an Americana/Country singer from Alabama who looks strangely like an officer from WW2. Perhaps its the moustache and army style jacket. Either way, he follows the Bob Dylan format of guitar, mouth organ and vocals and keeps it simple. Twisted lyrics included a song about killing himself when he was young, one about Vampires and a love song for that obvious combination of drugs, whisky and Jesus.
Reminded me of Calexico, was an interesting diversion and a good chance to sit on the floor and relax to some interesting tales.
Check out his myspace, a complete recording of a gig at SXSW, and this video of ‘I killed myself when I was young’.
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21:15 Sunset Rubdown @ Pavillion Theatre
After the sitting down, it was time to stand up and get up the front for the new band from former Frog Eyes member and Wolf Parade front man Spencer Krugg. The band are from Montreal, and their new album has had some great reviews. This was their first ever UK gig.
On stage alongside Spencer was a keyboardist/electronics wizard and 3 rotating musicians who played drums, bass and lead guitar at varying points during the evening. Due to the singers distinct David Byrne-like vocals the band do resemble Wolf Parade and the similar Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. The music is disjointed and lurches through various unusual styles and back. Often they reminded me of their contemporaries The Arcade Fire and Interpol but mixed with plenty of other stuff. They even turned into Sparks for the last track. An interesting band, one that would take repeated listens to get fully.
There’s a myspace of sorts, and a session download.
22:15 Okkervil River @ Pavillion Theatre
Okkervil River have been around for over a decade and are a highly respected live act in the US. Tonight was no exception, and although their music is pretty standard stuff, live they have everything down to a fine art. Despite drums falling over, stuff not working properly and mic stands crashing all over the place (perhaps this is all part of their act) they sounded perfect and came together like a well rehearsed chaos.
The audience were very enthusiastic, some a little too much as one group of guys kept getting told off by security for being too excited. Arms in the air for every song, they even managed to form a very small and gentle mosh pit. This all added to the chaos on stage as the lead singer leapt around, guitar often slung over his back with the mic being hurled all over the place.
Okkervil River have a big sound, and a large band, with 2 keyboards and 5 people on stage in total, all in suits except one, and mostly over 35. They are a real drinking band, with their style more Irish craic than indie rock. The Levellers spring to mind, as do fellow Americans The Hold Steady. True professionals and an unmissable live act.
Check out their myspace to sample the latest album The Stage Names, listen to a live session and check out this acoustic session at Brooklyn’s Sound Fix records:
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23:00 The Yeasayer debacle
After Okkervil river we rushed over to The Barfly to catch Yeasayer along with everyone else. Hence on arrival we found a queue of at several hundred people. One of our writers, Angela, had been standing in line for over an hour, and said lots of people had pushed in resulting in a crowd of about 100 people, followed by the queue. It was one in one out, and everyone seemed very tense. Angela had left the queue and people refused to let her back in, assuming she was another ‘pusher’, with all this madness, we headed across the road to the Pressure Point for a little world music. That still involved a half hour queue as everything was running an hour late for some reason.
00:45 Arun Ghosh and Nathan ‘Flutebox’ Lee @ The Pressure Point
Instead of Yeasayer, who were playing again anyway and would have been rammed, we found ourselves at this gem of a show, which featured some really interesting and ethnically diverse sounds.
First up was Arun Ghosh, a clarinet player from Bolton by way of India, who played chilled out nu-jazz with an eastern vibe. He played with 2 others on tabla and double bass, but I think we would have benefited from his full live band who were promised in the festival guide. Nevertheless this was certainly something unique sounding, and I felt transported to another world, or at least, a world music festival.
The second act was extraordinary – Nathan ‘Flutebox’ Lee, a human beatbox who plays the flute at the same time! He was joined by a skilled Tabla player Hanif Khan who preformed an incredibly fast solo before being joined by Nathan. Along the way we also met a flamenco guitarist, another amazing human beatbox who provided some pounding bass for a recreation of the Knight Rider theme, and a rapper. Blending music with the excitement and awe of a carnival freak show, this was undoubtedly one of the most unusual performances of the night, and I feel the queue was probably outside the wrong venue.
Here’s a video from tonights performance:
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(Nathan ‘Flutebox’ Lee, performing live at the Pressure Point)
Angela incidentally joined us in the end after failing to get in to see Yeasayer, unbelievably some other people who had queued for over an hour and stuck with it, did eventually make it.
01:45 The Ting Tings @ The Barfly
After deciding to head home, myself and Angela decided to enter the forbidden kingdom of The Barfly, since there was now a queue of only 4. Bizarrely the doorman persisted in behaving as if there were still hundreds outside, making us stand in the correct spot, and telling us we had pushed in when more people arrived and we moved in front of them. He must have had one hell of a bad night though, so we let him off and got in just in time to see The Ting Tings start up, luckily half an hour late.
Sadly I was far too tired to be dealing with the trendy pop of this Salford chart bothering duo, and I’m not sure I would have liked it in any circumstances. Angela seemed to have a great time though, and perhaps I’ll get her to add some thoughts in the comments. For me, with an aching back and sore feet, bed couldn’t come quickly enough.
Keep reading for our thoughts on day 2 with Yeasayer, Broken Record and the Future Folk night at the Duke of Yorks and the review of day three with reviews, videos and photos of Crystal Castles, Lightspeed Champion, The Shortwave Set and more.
Words – Mark Kirby, Photos – Rob Noble