Great Escape Festival Brighton 2009 Preview

Here are our recommendations on what to see at The Great Escape 2009. Unfortunately the line-up isn’t anywhere near as strong as last year, but I’m sure there are going to be plenty of bands I’ve not heard of with something interesting going on, so pick a few random things. Add your own recommendations below in the comments.

Top festival tip – to avoid queuing either go from place to place watching relatively unknown bands, or get somewhere early and stay there and watch one band you really like each day. At 11 you’ll be able to change venues and see someone else.

Thursday

For Americana fans like myself I’d recommend catching the dark classical leanings of DM Stith at Pavilion Theatre at 7:15 and then head over to the Old Market for the twisted tales of American Folklore from The Handsome Family (9:15) followed by Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach (10:15).

Audio has a solid line up of well known punk acts tonight – Video Nasties (7:30), Mika Miko (8:15), the apparently awesome live act Danananaykroyd (9:00) and 60’s throw backs Black Lips (9:45).

Digital has 90’s legend Evan Dando (9:15) supported by female led This Tawdry Affair (7:30) and current Plan B favourite folk duo Emmy the Great (8:15).

For after hours either relax with the sublime local act currently breaking the big time The Miserable Rich (11:15) followed by singer songwriter Teitur (he was named the best male artist at the danish music awards don’t you know) and French electronic folk act Cocoon (12:45 AM) at Duke Of Yorks cinema, or head to Concorde 2 for Norwegian Franz Ferdinand meets electro act Datarock (1:30 AM).

Bands to avoid today include the complete and utter self important prick Just Jack at Brighton Coalition, the ever disappointing live Peter, Bjorn and John at Concorde 2 and local dullards The Maccabees at Corn Exchange.

Friday

Start off at the Sallis Benney Theatre to catch The Veils (6:30), then the somewhat irritating but popular and trendy Micachu and the Shapes (7:15). Not so new bands Mystery Jets (8:00) followed by BSP conclude the night at 9:00.

PO NA NA has the very fun young Norwegian act Casiokids (8:45) and mental punkists The Mae Shi (9:30).

You could do a lot worse to round off Friday than catching 4 or 5 Magicians at Above Audio (9:30). The second they are done, run, run to nearby St Georges Church for a night of exotic folk – Dark Horses Feat Emilliana Torrini (10:00), Aussie roots act Gurrumul (10:45) and Norwegian Ane Brun (11:30).

In other news Digital presents Ox. Eagle. Lion. Man (8:00), followed by last years big act Lightspeed Champion (9:45). Unfortunately the night is sponsored by TopMan, a tragic misjudgement by all involved.

A US centric line-up of reasonable bands is on at Pavilion Theatre – Blind Pilot (7:15), Crystal Antlers (8:00), Vivian Girls (9:30) and Abe Vigoda (10:15). I’ve seen most of those, none blew me away though.

Worthy of note – Chairlift (8:45) Concorde 2, Metronomy (12:00) Corn Exchange, Crystal Antlers (11:00) Hectors House, Metric (9:45) The Honeyclub, Holy Fuck (10:15) The Komedia, Broken Records (9:15) and Noah and the Whale (10:15) Old Market.

Many self respecting people will be avoiding The Charlatans today, those of us of a certain age may have fond memories of this band, but one shouldn’t confuse nostalgia for quality. If you have the urge to watch britpop bands flailing around to survive in todays harsher world, don’t go to the Old Municipal Market at 6:30 PM, and remember kids – The Road to V is paved with cunts.

Saturday

Start the day with a kiwi musical extravaganza at Horatios on the pier from 1:30 PM, highlights include one of the best small live acts I’ve ever seen The Veils (3:40) and punk band Die! Die! Die! (2:20).

Ocean Rooms open with haunting Americana act The Low Anthem (7:30). I’ll be following that myself with one of the best unoffical Great Escape parties – the Manicolo Eurovision Party 2009, secret location, music, europop and local infamous celebrity Mani in a suit.

For those without invitations to the private parties Digital has Brooklyn electro act Telepathe (8:00) followed by Austin singer songwriter Ben Keweller and local one time wonderboys turned mediocre lightweights British Sea Power (9:45).

Also worthy of note are Heartless Bastards at Concorde 2 (7:15) and Brakes at The Komedia (9:15) followed by pop diva Little Boots (10:15).

Bands to avoid today include popular Oasis covers band Kasabian (they’re not actually part of the festival anyway as you had to buy a superticket costing an extra £20 to see them, or just a separate ticket – also £20. Cheap bandwagon jumping fuckers).

Alternatively you could avoid Idlewild – the scottish metal band who turned to producing turgid albums of soft wank in the early 00’s. Who knows what Roddy and the boys will have come up with now. If you want to find out, I wouldn’t bother going Horatio’s on the Pier at 3 AM.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 10th, 2009 at 2:39 am and is filed under Music in Brighton, Other music articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.