The Great Escape Festival 2019
We went to The Great Escape Festival in Brighton again this year. In case you didn’t know, The Great Escape is kind of like the south of England’s answer to SXSW – lots of exciting new artists playing in lots of different venues. Here’s some of our favourite people we went to see in no particular order:
1. We saw Little Simz on Thursday night at The Deep End tent down on the beach. She was very awesome and we’re both very much in love with this song…
2. The Mauskovic Dance Band played down in the welcoming gloom of the Komedia. These Dutch chaps make very danceable music that kind of reminded us of William Onyeabor. We think you’d like em.
3. We were flagging a bit by the time we went to see Pom Poko play at the Sallis Benney Theatre on the last day of the festival, but they revived us with their cowbells, distorted arty guitars and pounding drums.
4. We had probably been looking forward to seeing Chai the most (we blogged about them a while ago) and they didn’t disappoint. We managed to get up front for their show in the Hideout (one of the smallest venues at the festival) and they were great. Think they may’ve been happiest band we’ve ever seen!
5. Fat White Family headlined on Saturday night and were absolutely horrible in the best possible way. Best live band we’ve seen for a while. Beware: the video below is full of (cartoon) blood and gore.
6. Pip Blom also played in the tiny Hideout bar and were a fun ball of fuzzy guitar energy. We’d watch them again.
7. It’s become something of a tradition for us to head to the Queens Hotel when we’re too tired to stand up any more (there’s a carpet to sit on). Luckily for us French groove cats Le SuperHomard were playing some super nice sixties-sounding stuff for us to nod along to.
8. Lastly (but not leastly) here’s local band Garden Centre. We’d missed a couple of bands we’d wanted to see earlier that day so they cheered us right up with their enjoyably wonky indie.