under another sun

Final escape Last day of The Great Escape - Lorraine and I off in the evening to Horatios. This is a pub on the cheesy pier, which I'd never been to before. Inside there were stools to sit on, which was nice after two nights of standing for hours. The Black Box Revelation kicked us off. Great drummer/singer guitarist band rather unexpected in this cheesy pub at the bottom of the bill, and much the best band of the night. Then a band called S.C.U.M. slightly doomy gothic young things who were visually good, finally Ipso Facto a trio of women who didn't really butter my parsnips musically. Phew. Three days of rocking over, and eight acts seen. Jolly good fun it was too. It's like having a crash course in new pop music, and the only act I positively didn't like was Emmy the Great. No doubt she'll be the most successful of them. Below I got quite into taking photographs of the bands, but not using flash and so having ghostlike blurs and graininess and double imaging...

Holy Fuck Blame the Canadians, for Toronto's Holy Fuck played the Kommedia tonight as part of Brighton's The Great Escape. This was a fantastic fourpiece who, as I believe the parlance goes, mashed up the place. Excellent beats and mad sound textures generated from Heath Robinson nests of wires and retro technology keyboards, plus things that aren't even instruments such as a 35mm film synchronizer that one of the guys was pulling film through. Easily the best of the five acts I've seen so far. Crowd cavorting and leaping, so it was all rather lively. Hugely enjoyable. Also, from LA, we saw Gran Ronde who were like a more cheerful Interpol. Very tight and professional. Huge chiming walls of sound. Lorraine and I sloped home tired but happy after day two of being rock people. Love this opportunity to see first hand new musicians and bands. It's like a refresher course in rock music. Although there not much in the way of music of black origin. In other news, much di...