Great Escape Brighton 2008 Review – Day 2
Here is a review of the second day at the Great Escape festival. We also have a review of the first day and the third day. We saw Broken Record, Yeasayer, Tom Baxter, Melodica Melody and Me, Eamon Hamilton and Devon Sproule. This is the first part of the review, check back here later for the second part.
19:30 Broken Records @ The Pressure Point
Having decided to see Yeasayer and missed out last night we wanted to ensure there were no problems this time so got to The Pressure Point in plenty of time and were lucky enough to come across Broken Records. Broken Records are a Scottish folk band, who blend indie with gypsy jazz. At times they resemble Nick Cave, SIgur Ros, Hope of the States, Gogol Bordello, Coldplay with strings and Hawk and a Hacksaw. There are plenty of strings, with both violin and cello in use along with several other instruments, producing a very rich sound.
They do sound an awful lot like their influences, the vocals in particular seemed to change for every song, at times sounding like Nick Cave, Jeff Buckley and Chris Martin, but never sounding too individual.
Derivative or not, the band works very well live and despite both guitars breaking there was so much going on I didn’t really miss them. The band seemed very friendly as well, perhaps a little too polite and lacking in confidence to make it on the trendy scene, but that’s probably a good thing. This is a band I’d happily enjoy a few times at smaller festivals in the sunshine.
Find out more on the Broken Records Myspace and watch this video to ‘Wolves’:
20:00 The long wait
Annoyingly, the next band at the Pressure Point had cancelled, and rather than let everyone wait inside we all had to leave and prepare to queue again. This resulted in another hour long wait to see Yeasayer, which could be added to two hours that friends of mine had waited outside the Barfly the previous evening. It was a shame to miss out on some gig time, but the wait wasn’t too bad, and we had queued far less than many this weekend due to our stick with where you are policy.
21:20 Yeasayer @ The Pressure Point
After letting us in early and completing the soundcheck early, Yeasayer decided to play 2 extra songs and kick things off ten minutes early. We felt better about missing them yesterday already. Yeasayer are another Brooklyn band and there is a lot of hype surrounding them right now. They play psychedelic electronic music influenced by Afrobeat and world music.
The venue was packed, and the band didn’t disappoint. They played almost their entire new album and the upbeat nature of the music meant it was easy for everyone to have a bit of a dance. Visually there was plenty going on, their front man is constantly lurching around on stage, perhaps to make up for the lack of their usual visuals. As well as playing a storming 40 min set, they gave in to the audience’s demands for an encore (something which isn’t usually allowed at a festival with timed slots) and as the last band at the venue they came back on for an extra track. This had to be a better gig than last night, and they themselves said the crowd tonight was much better and less drunk. Bravo!
Here’s an amazing video from tonights performance – well done Rob, its just like being there!
(Yeasayer – Wait For The Wintertime, live at Pressure Point)
Find out more on the Yeasayer myspace.
22:30 Tom Baxter @ Parlure Spiegeltent
There was just time to pop into the Spiegeltent on the way to the Duke of York’s to catch Tom Baxter, a singer songwriter backed by an impressive band including double bass and violin. Tom has proven very popular on Radio 2 over the last few years and also has a song featured in the Simon Pegg film Run Fat Boy Run, which he played this evening.
Initially besieged by sound problems, Tom managed to overcome these quickly and played a set of what could perhaps be best described as pleasant lounge music. The Spiegeltent with its red velvet domed ceiling and mirrored walls is a lovely setting for any band, and this one seemed ideal. Although they aren’t pushing any boundaries, they are certainly very lovely and just the sort of thing you would expect to find on Jools Holland. Not unlike a slightly less interesting Tom McRae or much less interesting Rufus Wainwright, borderline jazz.
Check out his myspace for more.
23:00 Future Folk at the Duke of York’s
After last night’s dashing around, a sit down at the Duke of York’s seemed like a good plan for the afterparty.
The Duke of Yorks laid on 3 bands for us tonight, each folk of a slightly different kind.
23:20 Melodica, Melody and Me @ the Duke of York’s
Melodica, Melody and Me were first up, a very young and earnest band apparently from London. I say this because many people at the gig seemed to know them, which would suggest a more local band. Either way they were ever so polite and did quite a lot of awkward dancing, which was rather sweet. Debbie, who was one of our group, said they were her favourite band that day and this was all down to their niceness and naive charm.
Musically the band were jolly good as well, lots of those keyboards you blow through, a ukulele and an accordion were among the instruments this sextet used to create gypsy-style folk, not unlike a younger version of the earlier band Broken Records. S Club Juniors to their S Club 7 if you will. It would seem this band are doing the festival circuit this summer so if you get a chance and want to forget all your troubles and feel young again make sure you catch them.
00:20 Eamon Hamilton (Brakes) @ the Duke of York’s
Eamon Hamilton was once in British Sea Power and now heads up the country-style three piece Brakes. Tonight he performed solo, but all the songs were Brakes numbers, so it could be considered a Brakes acoustic set. I’m a big fan of Brakes’ first album, although I found the second a bit weak with too many ballads. Tonight we got a range of songs off both albums so I was happy.
Derek, another one of our little party, really didn’t like the set at all as he found the guitar too samey throughout – he got quite angry actually and rather disrupted things. Not as much as the people in front though, who kept shouting random things out. Everyone else we were with had a good time, with Eamon’s witty lyrics and catchy tunes winning the day.
People were clearly quite drunk (or more) by this point of the evening including Eamon himself whose random comments and unusual demeanour suggested he was a little the worse for wear. You couldn’t tell from the songs though, apart from forgetting the odd line.
Here’s a video taken from tonights performance:
(Eamon Hamilton – If I should die tonight, live from Brighton Duke of York’s)
http://www.myspace.com/brakesband
00:50 Devon Sproule @ the Duke of York’s
Devon Sproule ended the evening, and those in the audience still awake got to witness some intelligent and unusual country music from this American singer songwriter. Devon has a voice that sounds just like classic country and western singers like Loretta Lynn used to. Her voice may be typical country but her lyrics and style are not, and this made a nice change.
Like the rest of us, Devon seemed pretty wasted tonight, she even declared this at the beginning. Her banter was rather rambling, one story started off explaining how she was married, hence on Eastern time, although she wasn’t because she’d been in England a week. That kind of thing. When she introduced her band who were from Coventry, she did a little gorilla dance – not too sure why. A great performance though; despite it being so late and the kind of music that might just send everyone to sleep, most people seemed to stay up for it.
Here’s a video from tonights performance:
http://www.myspace.com/devonsproule
If you haven’t already don’t forget to check out our review of day one for reviews of Bon Iver (there’s an amazing video of their acoustic mid crowd encore) and Okkervil River amongst others and the review of day three with reviews videos and photos of Crystal Castles, Lightspeed Champion, The Shortwave Set and more.
