#TGE16

[miseryauthorex]

this episode!!! is so good!!!

[lampenfiebermusicblog]

This is post no. 600 on Lampenfieber Music Blog. Something, which actually started as just a side project to my other photo tumblr. 

Time to say thank you to anyone who actually is reading this and is looking at my photographs. In a way, this is mainly a sort of public music diary  I haven’t made much effort to spread the news about this blog. So thank you for finding me!

I want to “celebrate” this day by featuring the artist behind one of my favorite albums from 2016, Frankie Cosmos. 

I was lucky to see Greta Kline’s music project twice at last year’s The Great Escape in Brighton. There was something awkward and shy about her live performance. In a way, the pictures are a bit misleading - mostly Greta Kline had her eyes closed during her sets, like a teenager performing for the first time in front of an audience. But that actually made the concerts quite refreshing, in an environment where even new and upcoming bands usually already are incredibly professional and (seemingly) cool.

In a way it also was fitting the beautiful fragility and poetry of her lyrics.

[pollyimiles]

@YUCKBAND BACK IN MAY AT @GREATESCAPEFEST #TGE16 @STICKYMIKESFROGBAR #ACIDBOX #LIVEMUSIC #INDIE #WORLDPHOTODAY #CROWDSURF - FULL ALBUM HERE: http://bit.ly/2bnf8lF

[testwood]

My review of @thegreatescape is up on @thepunksite #TGE16 I've been featuring the highlights of my weekend at The Great Escape over the past couple of weeks, so check them out if you haven't already.

[aesthetic-magazine]

Check out our photos from day 3 of The Great Escape 2016 with St Lucia, Dead!, Black Foxxes, & Boy Jumps Ship! More Photos Here: http://bit.ly/1WUz2cH Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook

[sparkleandsnarl]

The Great Escape 2016, day 3, part 2

This evening had tons of clashes, but I made my first difficult choice by opting for Jambinai at the university's Sallis Benney Theatre, an excellent decision. Jambinai are a Korean band that fuse traditional instruments with rock. They were fierce and extremely talented and also just really absorbing to watch. One long song had me almost in tears; I bought both their CDs (the second one hadn't yet been officially released, woohoo!) and discovered that this particularly moving song is called "커넥션 (Connection)," and I would urge you to put it on, loud, so you can hear all the nuances, and just sit back and close your eyes and let it wash over you. It's that one repeated melody bit whose poignancy really got me.

After a bit of a break, I returned to Patterns Upstairs to see Cosovel, a Polish woman with intriguing electro pop (her bio on the festival page says that the lyrics are based on translations of poems by modernist poet Srecko Kosovel). She was so bubbly and charming, and sweetly excited to be there, which made her set even more enjoyable. For visual interest, abstract patterns projected behind her during her performance cast her, and her backing musicians, into stripey or jaggedy shadows. I didn't often see people dancing at the smaller venues, especially if they weren't dimmed like traditional gig venues, but they were dancing so enthusiastically at the front that the guy next to me, filming on his iPad mini, had to relocate lest he capture nothing but bouncing fans.

I had other plans for the lineup that evening, but was suddenly knackered and... kind of ready for the festival to be done and dreading it being over at the same time. I didn't want to go back to my Airbnb room at 22:00; that just seemed like a defeated ending. I checked the timetable for the Unitarian Church, because I thought a gig that was sort of halfway between Patterns (on the seafront) and my room (by the station) would be a gentle way to start winding down.

Seeing dance music duo Mieux there sounded like a good idea. And a gig where I could sit seemed like an even better idea.

And it was! The two Austrian guys were kind of adorably nerdy/normcore, and told all of us sitting there that this was their first seated concert, and we should feel free to get up and dance. Most of us stayed slumped in our seats, nodding our heads or chair dancing as we had energy or lack of inhibition for, but there were about 20 people (in varying states of inebriation) at the back dancing wildly. Halfway through the set, two guys who'd been among the more frenetic of the chair dancers got up to dance for real with the crew at the back, and then for the very last song, one of the dancers led everyone up front. You could see Mieux were tickled by this tribute; it was all a thousand kinds of adorable.

So... that was my festival. The next morning I got up early and had a quick walk down the beach one last time, especially because the sun was shining (on Saturday it rained on and off, sometimes heavily, for pretty much the whole day). It was mostly quiet: day-trippers hadn't arrived yet and most of the festivalgoers were either sleeping off a hangover or already getting their trains. I dipped my fingers in the water again and took a selfie and some photos of the beach, and listened again to the rattle of the sea as the tide sucked itself back through all those pebbles.

I was dubious that the Great Escape would feel in any way as exciting and lovely as by:larm; it just seemed so much bigger and potentially more stressful, and in a way it was -- in the weeks before, I got pretty frantic with my spreadsheet and trying to note down whose songs I'd clicked 'like' on the festival playlist, and just despairing. But in the end, it was all right: there was no way I could see all those 400 bands, and I didn't want to, and that was okay.

Also, the ocean, THE OCEAN! I grew up very near the beach and spent a lot of time there growing up, and I miss it in London.

This was my second bit of holiday this year involving gigs (the first being by:larm), and so far it's worked out really well, after years of me saying, huh, the Great Escape's got a good line-up, I should've sorted out going this time. I'll try to go next year, I think. Who's with me?

[walzerkoenig]

Two crappy cellphone pictures of MIEUX at The Great Escape Festival 2016 in Brighton, UK on 21 May 2016

It was the first seated show for Mieux, but it wasn’t really seated for long. Their music worked unexpectedly well in the ascetic atmosphere of Brighton’s Unitarian Church, and an ever-growing congregation of their British fans danced throughout the whole set – in the back at first, then making their way along the aisle to the front, and that is a kind of transcendental experience I can support.

[ginakushka]

really enjoyed doing this interview @ #TGE16. ty for the continued support #TheMostRadicalist. have a read if u wanna get to know some honesty💔⚡️✍🏽 Link: http://www.themostradicalist.com/article/great-escape-2016-tmr-talks-gina-kushka/

[lampenfiebermusicblog]

everybody understands me but i wish nobody understood me so you could be the one who did embody all the grace and lightness 

Greta Kline - Frankie Cosmos

[xc-photography]

#fromlastyear #tge16 #photo for @drmartensofficial & @livenationuk @thegreatescapefest #greatfun #promophoto #beforetheevent #shoes #newshoes #newdms #solastyear #fashionphotographer #fashionmen #fashionphotography #inthepub #bar #notbotheringthisyear

[dailyzoxey]

💜 #TheLateEscape #TGE16 #LastDay (at Patterns)

[testwood]

Feature: The Great Escape Highlights (10/10)

@danpyunsun wraps up my @thegreatescape highlights. Roll on next year! #TGE16

10/10: Danpyunsun and the Sailors

The Great Escape is a celebration of musical diversity and there was no better way to finish the weekend than with one of the most eclectic of the lot. The show was set in the conference room of a hotel, but as we entered to neon stage lighting draped across a drum kit complete with wind chimes and various other miscellaneous percussion, it didn’t take long to be…

[aesthetic-magazine]

Check out our photos from day 3 of The Great Escape 2016 with St Lucia, Dead!, Black Foxxes, Boy Jumps Ship, & more! More Photos Here: http://bit.ly/1WUz2cH Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook

[sparkleandsnarl]

The Great Escape 2016, day 3, part 1!

The Great Escape, day 3! I was torn between wanting to cram in as many gigs as possible on the final day and simple fatigue. Constantly trying to rejig my schedule depending on energy or crowds or weather (it rained a lot on Saturday...) got old fast. I really appreciated seeing other people with printed-out and annotated timetables or even their own spreadsheets (... I had both). With phone battery charge at a premium -- all the tweeting and Instagramming of bands takes a toll -- I agreed with one guy who fervently told me paper was the only way to go, the festival's app (which was, to be fair, very good: I think it was the same code as the one by:larm used, which was amazing) only to be used as a backup.

I started off with the Big Moon over at Komedia. The club, ickily enough, was apparently not mopping its floors during the festival: it was only lunchtime, and the floors were so sticky it hampered movement, certainly dancing. Anyway! The Big Moon are four confident, cheerful young women with tons of rock swagger. I loved watching them grin at each other and do all the requisite power posing (guitarist and bassist facing off, etc.). Their music is scratchy, buzzy pop-rock that put me in mind of the Muffs (or maybe that just means most of my musical references remain from my high school days), but with sweeter, less growly voices. They were hugely entertaining to watch!

Next I ducked briefly into the Spiegelpub, the big tent area that I'd only been to for wristband exchange a couple days ago. I kind of felt compelled to at least see one dePresno song -- he's so hyped at the moment, and I've missed seeing him about 3 or 4 different times (I meant to see him at by:larm and elsewhere, and just... never did). Visually he's got a kinda retro nerd thing going on, a combination of old Life cereal commercials and Ron Weasley. I love the warmth and resonance of his voice. He started off with some song that -- sorry! -- I can't even remember right now (I've just been clicking around his Soundcloud trying to find it, alas), but I remember that a weaker singer couldn't have carried the lyrics, because they would've been cliched and overwrought, but he made them so heavy and poignant that I clutched at my chest a little.

I had to scurry after that, over to Patterns to see Elifantree. My festival priorities always include focusing on Finns and/or women and/or people of color, and the intriguing Elifantree hit the first two items. They do a lot of... kind of noodley-jazz-improv-type stuff. To be honest, it was a bit too much so at times for me; it's just not hugely my thing. Still, I did enjoy their set; their personable singer has an incredible, versatile voice, and the three of them played with such verve and glee, it was a pleasure to watch. I would go see them again.

I next went over to the Latest Music Bar (where I'd happily had my rooibos tea and orange juice the other night!) to catch Korean doo-wop girl group the Barberettes. The room was rammed; for most of the show I could barely see them at all. They were a delight: impeccable styling, gorgeous voices, and bubbly. Their guitarist asked for the sound to be adjusted very nicely, noting, "You have to be very polite in England." Later on, after exhorting us to sing along, she said something like, "English people sing very well, I am very surprised!" Their set was somewhat heavy on English-language cover songs -- sharply and confidently done, but I wanted more original stuff, and wondered if they felt like too much Korean-language music would put off the audience (quite possibly, alas).

Then I had an encounter with a musician whose band I've already mentioned seeing at the festival: I saw him at a restaurant during dinner and flailed pathetically to him about how much I dug their music. Thrilling and embarrassing at the same time!

Next I went back to Patterns (enjoying feeling the vaguest bit familiar with the venue) to see the Polish band Sorry Boys. I'd describe them as doing witchy rock, an impression added to by the long white lace dress with random silver bits on it worn by their singer. At one point, she announced a song and someone called out from my right, "My favorite!" Someone to my left then chimed in, "Mine too." It was very sweet! (Later on the same person on the right called out, "Bela, give me your dress!" It was a pretty cool outfit...) The singer explained the cultural context of one of their songs, "Dagny" -- I've forgotten the details, but something about love frustrated by a political marriage, and how the story captured everyone's imagination at the time. It's sort of melancholy-languid-sultry; check out a live version here:

I'm going to stop here for now, but: one more post & I'll actually have written up an entire festival, woo! This never happens (you'll note on my first post it took me something like 4 years to write up 2 Stars gigs, however briefly...).

[busdaphunk]

One of the more exclusive passes at @greatescapefest this weekend #TGE16

[chris-watt]

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Top weekend in Brighton. Only downside was @emmamoutrie beating me at crazy golf (again). Until next time @greatescapefest ✌️❤️⛳️ #TGE16 #brighton (at Brighton, United Kingdom)