ADN Project Great Escape Special

The idea is thus. For those that weren't fortunate enough to attend TGE this year, or indeed if you want to relive some of it's highlights, or indeed if you simply want to read about what happens if you send SuperHans with a press pass to the hippest, happening new music showcase the world has to offer, you are in the right place! 

There is method to the madness. Click and listen to the ADN Project Online Radio, where some of the musicians seen over the weekend will be featured whilst reading Hans / Weller / Alex's festival diary (complete with photos) below.  

www.adnproject.blogspot.com 

Lastly for more from one of the bands featured and reviewed, click their myspace link on the right of this page.  We suggest you do as we only review the best new acts out there today.

For your listening / reading pleasure, 

ADN

TGE Day 1 (All official PR in Italics!)

14/05

7pm: in Thistle Hotel just watched 

some kid called Theo Altieri (a young solo artist , trying to mix a bit of everything) Vultures all over im! Fairly amusing. Also watching The Volt (Indie Folk Pop Rock from Bath), 2 acoustic, ladybass and a box! See photo for further explanation!

Additional band, Phantom Limb (This Bristol-based five piece paint a canvas coloured with gospel, folk and soul, creating a sound that is warm embracing and easy on the ear, but without falling into the trap of merely being 'chilled out' Nothing you have heard before, but everything you love) cos of conditions, see below. 6 muso's on smallest stage ever. Big diva rocking it at the front, see photo!!

Going Audio later to see Answering Machine. Lots of trendy wanna be music about. Err... Like me?! Check out www.friend-and-co.com for awesome prints. 3 gigs down, 15 to go?! Pissing it with rain out, might hinder progress! Change of venue. Now in Upstairs Audio. The Shiny Brights (A tense blast of guitar-driven energy from Australia, The Shiny Brights are flying full speed down the hedonistic road of rock'n'roll. With urgent riffs a-plenty, they're fresh and raw and full of a lot of bottled-up energy that clearly needs to be released). 

Loud. Queue around the corner to get in downstairs... Cold Stripe in hand though. Hold on

they're Australian... No worries! Few Swine Flu gags. Predictable. Was that our last song? Yep. Too many waistcoats!!! Gig 4 btw, up. Aussies were actually half decent. Apparently downstairs full now. Blag question mark? Or upstairs for The Answering Machine? 

Gig 5 yeh... The Lorcanos (The west-country boys are fast establishing themselves as a ferocious live act, getting high profile slots besides The Cribs, Glasvegas and playing Glastonbury. Catch them before they explode). Not sure what's going on! Massive synth vibe. Blazers. LOTP wannabe wannabe? And it's raining again. Fave of theirs, 'Dagger', but how do I get to Maccabees later is the question?!

Staying for Answering Machine and might be early one... Few fitties about mind. Shame Hans is getting on a bit!! Just met some girls from the Shire who live on the same street as me Olds, Indie Crew yeh! 

Gig 6, The 

Answering Machine (The Answering Machine's melodic, bouncing sound is nicely offset by lead singer Martin's raw voice with the result somewhere between the fun of Feeder and The Subways. They'll refuse to budge from your head once they're in there). 

Decent decent decent! Band walking along the stage area, danger! As previously documented I fancy the ladybass (another one) and she looks lovely, as does some other Dorris I just met post gig. Get In! And so through the driving rain to The Corn Exchange. 

Met up with mate Russ from work, bit of a sit down inside with Vodka and Relentless (which was nearly as abundant throughout the course of the weekend as Stripe!). Gig 7, Brooklyn based, The Hundred in The Hands (With carefully composed polyrhythms, jagged guitar lines and layered breathy vocals, The Hundred in The Hands keep the raw energy of post-punk illuminating their minds). Watch this space, photo pass comes into use, see results below, i'd some em up as fit. 

Maccabees, gig 8, up up up. Atmosphere is awesome as the band hit the stage in their home town, fresh from the recent release of new album. Not alot of documenting band as was too busy actually getting involved!! (They've now notched up over 4 million plays on MySpace and are about to release they're second album, The Maccabees return more mature, more sultry and more sinister). First day, 8 gigs, Hans wins... awesome return to form from the Maccabees, mosh-pit, sweaty, tunes new and old awesome gig. Midnight Maccabees!!!!!!!

TGE Day 2

15/05

Hotel, Day 2. Ace. OK slow morning, need to drink something other than Jamaican Lager Beer. Not sure why people out and about at 9am, no gigs till later, hotel change, fry up and coffee needed! Highlight of yesterday without question Maccabees. Onwards however and excellent line up today also! So plans. Jeans have split and smell of beer, so new skinnies. Also camera? Good shots on smallest camera in the world, got funny looks up at the front last night, in the 'Pit'! Nurofen needed actually. Presently 8 gigs down, 10 to go!!

So Hans is now 3 coffees down in the press area having moved hotel to the marvelous 'Queens'. Quite like a nap before it all kicks off later... downloading ADN Project, Show 3 also, ace check it out, Hans' sea view luxury double needs readying ASAP please! Jesus it's blowing a gale outside, the elements really have settled in! Tsunami time I reckon.... Right, new jeans purchased and suitably trendy slippers yet now penned in hotel and plan has hit a brick wall. Meaning the whole 18 band thing sort of comes into question. Bad times. Back on the Stripe though after a bit of Hollyoaks in the room. Will try and venture out when the prospect of not getting drenched seems feasible! 

Right so to the Hop Holes to meet friends and get back on it. Good few Becks Vier in and the prospect of a gig seems a brilliant idea, even if it means the barnet getting messed up. Bid Lucy adieu in the Lanes as Hans remembers he has a press pass, so back to the best venue in

 Brighton, the Corn Exchange, for two OK gigs...! Mumford & Sons (Folk, bluegrass, afrobeat as influenced by Jesse Quin & The Mets and Alan Pownall's hair) promising but ultimately wrong environment? 

Onwards to gig 10 of 18, at this stage lamenting the meteo as it has hindered my progress, can Metronomy lift my mood? Yes. Sort of! Metronomy (We're sure you won't need much persuading to come and see Metronomy this weekend, their quirky, tangled electronic pop has been warping our ears for a while now and their ecstatic live shows promise to be as eccentrically explosive. Totally unmissable) at midnight. New line up with drummer and new bassist, half decent but not as synth or electro

based. Not as good basically in my opinion but pleasing enough! Must crack on tomorrow so parties on the sea front, I'll sleep on for now! 

TGE Day 3

16/05

So, last day, 8 gigs to go, have to get train back at 23:19 as have no monies left for bed for the night. I reckon I can probably plan for 6. That's 2 short and not a bad effort! Just in case this happens, I'll give you a little write up on Holy Fuck (Canadian three-piece Holy Fuck make boisterous indie-electro music with funk inspired bass lines, chaotic keys played through a sea of effects and just about every other noise you can conceive of making with or without the use of an instrument) and their gig. Basically reasoning 3 fold, a) because of their name they can't get air time, b) I really wanted to see em and didn't and c) spoke to several people about town and apparently they smashed it. Full stop. 

So promo done, to Brighton Pier. Mental. A cross between a shit Thorpe Park and Camden Lock built on some wood over the sea. The 'Crazy Mouse' looks fun though. And they got dodgems. And the deck-chairs are comfy. And it's sunny. So it's awesome. As is Horatios, the bar hosting the New Zealand Music showcase. A bit of waiting around and sit watching sound checking as the order goes wrong. But in a weird way, they get it right... 

Gig 11, Bang Bang Eche (Think of Bang Bang Eche as a New Zealand Hadouken; guitar rock with electro beeps and an MC front. This will have you bouncing off the walls). Front man is genius, they are a bit like a comedy RATM. 20 somethings from NZ, have a little chat outside, jolly nice they are too. Playing Mdm Jo Jo's on 26th May to check it. 

Gig 12, the crazy, weird synthy feedback guitar, ace sounding, dolphin-lover, Connan Mockasin 

(The quirky physche pop of New Zealander Connan Mockasin sounds like the Divine Comedy on hallucinogens. His helium voiced sonic oddities possess the sort of bonkers charm that had everyone wondering what mental  home was missing a Wayne Coyne - a truly leftfield pop individual). 

Gig 13, Die! Die! Die! (This trio make the sort of impatient jitter-punk that their moniker suggests, an ADHD racket that stomps its feet, goes red in the face and bursts its larynx until it gets what it wants, namely your attention). 

Heavy mosh punk from NZ and Brighton pier looks like it's gonna topple over from the weight of black clad indie kids. And it's all gone off! Half a shandy top with Lime for Hans please, DDD quote, "The NZ music industry is a lot better looking and well dressed than Flight of the Concords Murray... well actually not really!" 

And soon they follow this up with a bouncing bassist in the crowd, then the front man goes pogoing! It's only 3 o'clock and soon the bassist fancies a little more and a couple of ceiling panels are taken out! 

Gig 14, the last of the NZ showcase, The Veils (Taking their cue from the likes of Nick Cave and Patti Smith, this N Z/English quartet make erudite and intense songs that shudder with intelligent disaffection. They appear hot off the back of their third album). 

Another girly bass, fruity, they love it! Husky front man, stomps us into the sea... 4 gigs to go!  

Gig 15, secret street gig from the evergreen Ben Kweller (Ben Kweller has a habit of reinventing himself. These days he's gone a lil' bit country, providing bible-belt, broken heart 

ballads thick with guitar slides and the occasional foot-stomping sing along. Yee haaw). Great track, 'I'm on my way' and also 'Penny on the Train track.' CD purchased and signed by the man himself, BK quote "Hey Al, great jacket man!"

So 3 gigs left, and my early morning sunning on the pier and the NZ's have led me to an

 achievable goal!! Gig 16, Official Secrets Act (OSA come to Brighton on the back of a massive tour in support of their new album, 'Understanding Electricity'. Their wiry XTC/Talking Heads influenced tunes are exciting as they are inventive). Po Na Na is rammed and hot. Nice little synth driven lot again, decent enough although Hans has his suspicions that DDD and Liam Finn have something to do with the queues! 

I'm almost out on my feet, might have to get blatto again! 17, Peggy Sue (formerly Peggy Sue & The Pirates) and Hans was impressed enough to have a little chat and buy an album of the lovely Rosa after the gig. Sound a bit Adele but more folky!!

Gig 18, and I don't know of this counts, but DDD show up and I stayed. Partly because they are playing before Liam Finn, mostly because they like to rock the party. Not as mad as before, shorter gig too, but still awesome... the bassist is all over everything again the stage, the bar, the crowd and it doesn't take long for front man to take out a load of lighting!! Missed the freebee cd's lobbed in the crowd, but they were ace, again. So I'm gonna count it! 

Gig 19 and what a way to finish, the superb Liam Finn (If you fancy beautiful harmonies with charmingly rudimentary composition and plenty of beard then Liam Finn is most certainly on the cards for you. Finn's indie quaintness mixed with dark underlying lyricism is a formula for buoyant brilliance). He plays drums and guitar and bass on the same Fender and uses mad pedals and stomp boxes to loop everything together. Absolutely brilliant, unbelievable musicianship. Accompanied on stage by the lovely Eliza and Connan Mockasin also joins in, childishly charming in his participation (I might also have spotted him on the pier post gig earlier half way through a bottle of plonk the same colour as his trousers...). 

Brilliant way to finish a festival. Great Escape has confirmed itself as the most quaint, rocking, new music showcase. It's youthfully vibrant, trendy without the fake boho chic of a Glastonbury and you get fish n chips, a tan and a stick of rock to boot. One word for it... superb! 2010 will kick off and ADN will see you at the front. Get in.

Alex - ADN Project Online Radio from Brighton, May 2009