This year more than ever before there were a whole host of (mainly free entry) Unofficial Escape events going on at the same time as The Great Escape throughout Brighton & Hove and our team were out in force. These took place at numerous venues of varying sizes from Thursday 16th to Saturday 18th May. There are far too many acts to cover in just one article, so we have split them up in date order. This article refers to artists that the Brighton & Hove News team covered only on Saturday 18th May, along with the venue and planned time of the performance. Part 1 on the acts that performed on Thursday 17th May can be found HERE and Part 2 for those on Friday 17th May can be found HERE.
Here’s our Unofficial Great Escape reviews for Saturday 18th May….Enjoy!
SATURDAY 18th MAY:, Brighton
HUTCH – The Mesmerist – 16:30 – 17:00
(Alternative Escape – Smithereen Takeover Brighton 2024)
The jangle-psych pop quartet Hutch, Jack Pritchard, Dan Shepherd, Charlie Bogg, Owen Bullock, formed during lockdown. Originally beginning life as the soundtrack project for their own cartoon they moved to work on music to release. To be honest they are not really my bag, and I was a teenage prog fan, but everyone else loved them! I mean who doesn’t love a song about radiators? Or snails? They’re musically very slick and to me reminiscent of early Pink Floyd. Some of my ‘entourage’ were saying that this genre could be “the future of music” so keep your eyes peeled and ears open for this new movement. Their EP, ‘Smile And Wave’ was released earlier this year.
(Kairen Kemp)
AYSANABEE – The Mesmerist 17:30 – 18:00
(Alternative Escape – Smithereen Takeover Brighton 2024)
In March 2024, Aysanabee made history as the first ever Indigenous Artist to win the JUNO Awards for Alternative Album of the Year and the coveted Songwriter of the year, for Here and Now. He followed up the wins with a memorable performance on the awards broadcast with a tribute to Robbie Robertson and Gordon Lightfoot alongside other major Canadian artists. He has performed more than 200 shows on major stages and festivals and venues across Canada and globally including Ottawa Bluesfest, Osheaga, Montreal Jazzfest, Tönder Music Festival, AmericanaFest UK, Wake the Giant and many more. The ‘Here And Now’ EP tour included cross Canada tours with Dan Mangan and Allison Russell. His name in his native language means ‘the people’ and that sums up perfectly his stage presence and how he talks in between songs. He’s engaging with the audience even to the point of changing around his set in the second show somewhat to allow for the people who he recognised from an earlier performance. He is self-deprecating, making jokes against himself throughout. Aysanabee taught himself to play guitar from his brother’s Bob Marley CDs and has developed a novel style of playing including shredding on an acoustic which is what you would expect in the metal realm. His deep, throaty soul voice is astoundingly different from his gentle speaking voice. Today we got an exclusive of a track that didn’t make the latest album that wasn’t performed during yesterday’s set at the Green Door Store. This made the whole audience cheer with delight. At the end of each show the venues exploded in acknowledgement of what the punters experienced, which was something unique and beautiful.
(Kairen Kemp)
FRANKLIN MANSION – St Nicholas Church 18:00 – 18:40
(Alternative Escape – Back In The Woods Alt Alt Escape 2024)
This is my first time ever inside this iconic old Brighton church which is centrally located near Brighton’s Clock Tower on the way up to The Seven Dials. It has that characteristic olde church smell to it and there’s an almost full congregation for the full duration of Franklin’s set. Not knowing anything about this artist I delved deeper and noted that many will also know him under his Growing Boi moniker. Today he played tunes from his debut album including ‘Roundabouts’ which is written about anxiety, and also gave ‘Nosedive’ an outing as well, plus others from his (sometime) forthcoming second album as part of the set which has him on vocals, guitar and presets. It’s as you would expect, a relaxed friendly atmosphere and the punters enjoyed his stripped back rock ballads material judging by the warm applause he is awarded after every tune. Thankfully, despite being a tall church, a lot of the sound didn’t get lost up in the rafters. At the end of his set his friend Tessa Jackson accompanied him in performing ‘Number 25’ from his first album. Bless him, he had been rehearsing from 2am to 7am this morning for us, having got in from gigs. Well done sir!
(Nick Linazasoro)
LAURIE WRIGHT – The Black Lion 19:00 – 19:30
(Alternative Escape – Smithereen Takeover Brighton 2024)
I’ve made my way to the Black Lion to catch Laurie Wright and his band. I saw them recently and was so impressed I had to make sure I got to one of the Alt Escape sets. A devotee of mod style, Laurie’s music is classic British songwriting, brilliantly performed with the energy and panache of early Dr Feelgood. It’s packed in the pub but I’ve got a great spot, mere inches from the headstock of Laurie’s roadworn Strat. Opener ‘We’re Only Warming Up’ is the title track from the forthcoming second album, and the band seem more than warmed up already, playing with blistering speed and intensity. There is busy bass from Will, honking harmonica from Ciaran, and tumbling fills from drummer Alfie, plus a glorious vocal hook accompanied by wailing guitar. We get a few numbers from the debut album ‘Get On The End Of It’, and the crowd are enthusiastically clapping and singing along to the “all about the money” refrain of ‘I’ve Cracked It’. The high-velocity vocal of ‘Sh*t show’ is punctuated with nifty stops and Laurie introduces the band. ‘On My Tod’ is a new number about being stood-up on a date, and current single ‘It Was All Part Of The Plan’ soars magnificently. The songwriting is top notch. Concluding number ‘West End Lover’ is as much fun as can reasonably be had with a band, a blistering r’n’b romp with a brain-meltingly infectious tune. Showboating opportunities are built-in, and all the players really go for it: Laurie with tremolo strumming on the low strings, Will with a superb bass run, and Ciaran wailing the harp. Alfie wins today’s prize though, inserting tiny gaps amongst a barrage of triplet fills to gently ting the cymbals and then throw his stick up in the air. That was as joyous a half hour as I could possibly imagine.
(Richie Nice)
YUMI AND THE WEATHER – St Nicholas Church 19:00 – 19:40
(Alternative Escape – Back In The Woods Alt Alt Escape 2024)
I decided to stay put for Brighton based music artist Ruby Taylor aka Yumi And The Weather’s St Nicholas Church performance. Ruby first emerged back in 2013 with her critically acclaimed ‘All We Can’ EP, and since then Yumi And The Weather has spent the past few years perfecting her unique blend of electrifying technicolour psych-pop combining it with garage rock, shoegaze and indie elements, and electronic undercurrents. Yumi has also been making a name for herself with explosive live shows including festival slots at Manchester Psych Fest, Green Man, Y Not Festival, Kendal Calling, and Shambala. Her music has been featured in the BBC hit drama series ‘Normal People’ and she’s gained support from Lauren Laverne, Guy Garvey, Chris Hawkins, Don Letts, Jack Saunders, Iggy Pop, Tom Ravenscroft, John Kennedy, Clash, The Line Of Best Fit and more. This evening Ruby is on lead vocals and guitar and she is joined by a couple of chums on bass and backing vocals, and drums. As you expect a vast majority of the pews were taken for this bouncy indie rock set. Mid set, they played ‘Not Willing’ for the first time ever to an audience as well as other newbie ‘Work It Out’, which will be appearing on the forthcoming third album which they are working on at the moment. This was a very tight set with the band members clearly in unison and they rocked the foundations.
(Nick Linazasoro)
PROJECTOR – Black Lion 20:00 – 20:30
(Alternative Escape – Smithereen Takeover Brighton 2024)
Since they formed in 2018, Brighton’s PROJECTOR have stubbornly gone their own way. The band line-up is guitarist Edward Ensbury and bassist Lucy Sheehan who duel on vocals and drummer Cal Marinho. Bringing angular industrial drum machines to hook laden alt-rock, and lush melody to frenzied post-punk, the band have never hesitated to prioritise sonic breadth and an experimental attitude to pop. It’s this confidence in craft that have led them to tour Europe with rock giants Cleopatrick while simultaneously haunting the airplay of BBC Radio 6’s left field Steve Lamacq and Amy Lamé shows. PROJECTOR deal in nuance of expression and the true insanity and grit of modern life, psyche and politics and have kept a firm grip over their creative output by producing and recording themselves for the last few years. PROJECTOR’s debut album ‘Now When We Talk It’s Violence’ moves effortlessly between artful derangement, aggression and the pop hooks that have regularly seen the band gate-crash the mainstream rock scene. You like your rock ear bleedingly loud? Lyrically sharp and a tight band who clearly love what they’re doing and show it? Then PROJECTOR live are for you as they are for me. With crashing guitars and an echo of Joy Division and a slice of pure PROJECTOR. Playing on Chris Simmonds’ Smithereen stage today they knocked it out of the park and more.
(Kairen Kemp)
GLASSHOUSE RED SPIDER MITE – Hope & Ruin 20:30 – 21:00
(Alternative Escape – No Friends in the Industry)
Alex, Benji, & Ethan are Glasshouse Red Spider Mite, a fairly recently formed Brighton band who first emerged on to the circuit in early 2023, more recently they played their first headline show at the Green Door Store and put out their first single ‘Erstwhile’. This was their fourth and final show as part of the Alternative Escape and were playing to a packed out crowd, so packed that I literally had to stand at the back and just about see the tops of their heads, so I had no chance of spotting the setlist or getting up close and personal, but no matter, so long as I could hear everything that was good enough for me. Their style is slow core / post-rock and I would most certainly put them in shoegaze arena too. The blistering 32 minute set started off with a fairly slowish number, but it was a set that was going to build and build, the second song started with a full on wave of shoegaze guitar, joy to my ears and that very much was the pleasure that came for rest of the set, I could see the lead guitar had plenty of pedals hooked up, considering the trio consisted of playing drums, bass and guitar, they pulled out all of the stops to makes some fine sounds indeed. I am shocked to find virtually nothing out there informative on the band online, so little info about who they are or what is coming, especially if they have played numerous shows on the Brighton scene, but it all adds to the mystic. I very much look forward to catching them again, but this time making sure I get there early and get to the front.
(Ben Jerry Robinson)
DIRTSHARKS – Pipeline 21:00 – 21:30
(Alternative Escape – End Of The Trail + Play It Loud)
Dirtsharks, the self-professed “basement noise boys”, are fierce live and carve their sonic territory with a blend of reverb aggression, dynamic sympathy, and scuzz-drenched chaos. The Moran brothers take their influences from Biffy Clyro and The National whom you can see and hear in their lyrics. The imagery in their songs belie their furious, chaotic and emotional performance style. A highlight and surprise of their show is the section with the brothers’ frantic violin playing. There isn’t another band like Dirtsharks and certainly a twenty minute set wasn’t long enough tonight. See them now as they’re on the ascendance and you can see them, close up, sweat streaming and adrenalin fuelled before they’re playing large auditoriums. Their EP ‘Stay Lucent’ is out now.
(Kairen Kemp)
FULL FLOWER MOON BAND – Hope & Ruin 21:30 – 22:00
(Alternative Escape – No Friends in the Industry)
Having caught the band earlier in the morning, I changed up my evening plans to see them again, talking with many others down at the front, they had all done the same, such was the magnetic pull of this awesome band from Brisbane, Australia. This evening at the Hope & Ruin, drummer Luke said to me they were hoping to play a longer set, however the 7 song setlist I believe was the same as this morning, but thankfully it went for the full 30 minutes distance this time. Starting with the ‘Meet Ya’, the power of FFMB was released to a rammed yearning crowd. After which bandleader Babyshakes Dillon asked if it was too loud! “More vocals” came the reply from the crowd, with this rectified we had a few songs from their earlier albums before being treated to some from their upcoming album ‘Megaflower’. Luke properly was hammering those drums; I honestly thought the drumsticks were going to through one of them at one point, sheer power indeed. Every player in this band is so integral to the perfect noise they bring, whilst Dillon is the focal point, Christian Driscoll & Caleb Widener both play those guitars with immense skill. The band are so in tune with each and just so so so good. The set ended with crowd pleasing request of one more song, this time we got ‘Roadie’, but it was played at normal speed, ending with Dillon climbing on the sofa at the back, doing a mic drop and playing the guitar vertically in the air, what an end to absolute belter of a set, please come back soon.
(Ben Jerry Robinson)
PARKERS FANS – Hope & Ruin 22:30 – 23:00
(Alternative Escape – No Friends in the Industry)
And what better way as the festival end drew ever closer to go out on a high. I hung on in for the final show downstairs at the Hope & Ruin to catch Parker Fans once more. This time to a very packed room indeed, quite the difference compared to the small set in Bella Union on Friday, even Pip Blom were present and showing support in the front row ready to get down and dance. Funnily enough the first thing vocalist and beats man Kick Kluiving shouted out was “Do you wanna dance Brighton?” Indeed we all did. We were treated to a very lively 35 minute eight song set. Those wicked drum and bass beats, the mad sound effects, Tomas bring those cool synth and keyboard melodies and Sems masterful bouncing base as he constantly bobbed on the spot. While the music is all fun and games, the lyrics can be deceptive, telling tales of mini-tragedies and comedies. This band just bring mega joy to my ears and I again just smiled the whole way through, the 3 of them are all proper characters bringing charm and energy which adds to the whole thing. We had a couple of new numbers in the set ‘Frenulum’ and ‘Skaffa’, much like the rest of the set were both bloody awesome. The set came to a close with Sem getting up on the sofa playing his bass and Kick adding a pair of sunglasses while he was up there. No-one wanted it to end, chants for one more song followed, but alas it was not to be. But, this was it for me, the festival was now done and bed beckoned, but I went out on a high
(Ben Jerry Robinson)
