Whipping Up A Storm: The Great Escape

An overcrowded train from Brighton to London, two Gigwise hacks feeling like someone has just taken a sledgehammer to their heads, one annoying girl sat next to us who won’t shut the **** up despite the fact that her friends had stopped listening to her thirty minutes ago and the prospect of a further six hours worth of public transport travel. Colds have come and still not gone, livers have been ruined for life and eardrums shot to pieces. This is the aftermath; it took four days to get here…

Bands, lots of them, we were promised plus the added bonus of sun, sea and sand. The bands keep there side while the weatherman does a runner with our rays and replaces them with howling winds and heavy showers. Damn him! So it is off into these squalls with some optimism for Gigwise on the first night of the first ever Great Escape.

Now Canada is the home of cool when it comes to new music we’ve been told and so what better way to kick things off than with a little early evening soiree with Vancouver’s You Say Party! We Say Die! at the Pressure Point. The dark, characterless room is packed to the rafters, the kids of Brighton have obviously heard the hype, as we’re treated to YSP!WSD’s take on shouty dance punk. Front woman Becky Ninkovic is a slighter Andrea Zollo and there’s a definite tinge of Pretty Girls Make Graves to the quintets music. Think ‘Good Health’ with funkier bass lines but without the immediacy.

We then make the short trip over to the Albert for Spleen United, our favourite Danish purveyors of icicle like electronica, who we first spotted at Eurosonic in Holland. However, we find them not on top form tonight with the main problem being that they seem out of place in the dingy, back room feel of the Albert. The audience are politely warm but never enthused as the foursome bang away at their synths and beats and sometimes you’ve just got to admit that its just not your night. This feeling of underwhelming disappointment however is soon abated though as venture over to the Ocean Rooms for another bunch of hotly tipped Canadians Holy ****.

As we enter their set has just started and we’re soon treated to an aural assault of the headache inducing yet euphoric kind. On stage the four members barely notice the audience as they build up the momentum with toy keyboards, guitar and drums. Now we knew their debut album was promising with tracks such as ‘Casio Bossa Nova’ whetting our appetite but it is nothing to what these guys can do live. Thundering glitches, twitchy, danceable grooves and casio enthused accompaniments thrill the unsuspecting crowd and Gigwise alike. By the end we are breathless and giddy with excitement and holy ****! they’ve only played for about twenty minutes.

With fresh wind in our sails thanks to our new favourite Canucks we decide on ending the first night with The Spinto Band. With ‘Nice & Nicely Done’ prominent on the release horizon the Audio is understandably like a can of sardines and rightfully so. The Wilmington quintet doesn’t disappoint and how could they with songs like ‘Oh Mandy’, ‘Brown Boxes’ and ‘Did I Tell You’ in the vault. Joyously saccharine and undeniably fun tonight’s performance gives us more reasons to wax lyrical about how much we love them but first to the bar to start the weekends destruction of our major organs.

Day 2

Having spent the late afternoon schmoozing our heads into oblivion while watching one of our heroes, namely Peter Hook, spinning some vinyl in a random Brighton beach front flat Gigwise is raring to go on this the second day of our Great Escape adventure. Hangovers pushed to the back of our minds we find ourselves back at the Pressure Point to see some familiar faces. We know the Hot Club De Paris routine like the palm of our hand but it never fails to raise a smile or impress.

Kicking off their signature three part harmonies the Hot Club immediately have the crowd onside with their wit and their self deprecating/ audience bating style. Disjointed time signatures and call and response vocals are piled forth leading to play along whoops from the crowd. ‘Shipwreck’ and ‘Sometimesitsbetternottostickbitsofeachother... ineachotherforeachother' stand out in a set that never wanes from the wonderful. And the trio enjoy themselves just as much as us too triumphantly, if a little mockingly, raising their hands above their heads in celebration at the close of each song. We depart thoroughly entertained.

However, we must remain for a further appointment with Leeds four piece This Et Al. Now it may be because of the complete contrast with what we’ve just witnessed but This Et Al come across as over serious and truly disappoint. Songs run into each other without little distinguishable differences and come across as noise for noises sake. Even ace new single ‘Sabbatical’ can’t get the blood flowing in its live form and we are left to contemplate three possibilities – it was an on night, we just didn’t get it or they’re just not that good. One to ponder for another time.