The Great Escape 2014

Given the gusts and torrential rain that welcomes in this year’s Great Escape, there isn’t much point forming a precise plan of who to see. The wind could probably sweep just about anybody into a random venue, where previously undiscovered bands give their best attempt at defining the weekend. Bigger names hog the Dome - the fest’s biggest venue - but it’s in pub shows and impromptu secret sets that the event comes to life. Secrecy seems to be the theme this year, and it’s often in a late-night text or Twitter alert that plans dramatically shift. Sometimes, however, schedules come together and the festival’s most in-demand acts give good on their promise.

Billed as the first band for a three-day weekender either works as a curse or a blessing in disguise. Fortunately for Toronto’s Alvvays, they’ve met The Great Escape’s anticipation head-on. Running through carefree, beach-ready jams somewhere between Best Coast and Fear of Men, they dry off the rain-soaked misery of eager punters. Vocalist Molly Rankin never gets drowned out by a melee of overlapping melodies - a bustling crowd only eggs her on.

Somewhere down the end of the bunker-like Bermuda Triangle sits Honeyblood. A crushed venue and a few chatterbox industry types aren’t going to keep the Scottish duo down. If there’s a better new band than this playing The Great Escape, it’s a fine vintage. A firm Glasgow kiss delivered with a disarming smile, or a wilting platitude delivered with a sneer, of all the two piece acts making an impact in 2014, they’re the ones who know that you don’t always have to be at eleven to make an impact.

Brighton’s Corn Exchange may be one of the more cavernous venues being used this weekend, but that poses no threat for Royal Blood. Walking on stage in a haze of dark smoke, their set is thunderous from the go. Between Mike Kerr’s guttural bass sounds and Ben Thatcher’s pummelling drums, their rock’n’roll offerings may still be new to most ears, but they rumble to the rafters with swaggering ease.

Rae Morris has something most acts playing The Great Escape would kill for. No, not a mane of fierce curls, but genuine cross-over appeal. You’re as likely to hear her on your mum’s car stereo as you are a 6 Music session or a Radio 1 playlist. That’s no insult either - there’s nothing stuffy about her set, just the kind of songs that work wherever you want to place them. When you’ve got a voice like that, it’s no surprise.

New Yorkers Big Ups remain undiscovered in most parts, despite their intense, forthright way about doing things. It makes sense that between two sets across the day, it’s in the sort-of secret Boutique that they make good on their promise. Frontman Joe Galarraga doesn’t spend one second on the actual stage. Instead, he confronts crowd members, climbs aboard a staircase and - when his microphone stops working - enters into a round of improvised comedy. There’s more to this lot than sarcy punk.

Drowners are a juxtaposition. They’re definitely a band from New York, with that too cool, Julian Casablancas style delivery, but with their short, sharp bursts there’s too much effort involved to really ever be compared to those Big Apple titans. Instead, there’s an eagerness that sort of breaks the spell. Still, they’re to the point and direct.

Just the right mix of scrappy and boisterous, Canadians PUP waste no time in making a punk-flavoured racket down by the seafront, in the blackened Bermuda Triangle. With a debut album already under their belts, their pop-infused efforts are catchy and likeable, with the band demonstrating a good amount of promise in head-banging stakes.

Given the way vowels flick past in his thick Irish accent, it’s a phenomenal contrast when Dublin newcomer Rejjie Snow actually raps. It’s easy to see why he’s been spoken about as these shores’ equivalent to Chance the Rapper - there’s bombast, confidence and a good chunk of humbleness lining these songs together. Whatever follows last year’s ‘Rejovich’ EP is guaranteed to follow up on early promise.

Of all Jaakko Eino Kalevi’s strange styles - he’s neither one thing or the other, the Finn flicking through ideas like it’s an Argos catalogue - he seems most attached to funk. It’s a subtle strand, the kind reserved for balmy nights out, not sweaty clubs, but if Jaakko wants to be a star - and he looks the part - he’ll need to keep taking this promising route.

There’s definitely a case to be made for Chlöe Howl being every bit the perfect pop star, and her evening set on Thursday shows off the Berkshire teen’s vocals, songwriting nous, and wit both lyrical and mid-set.

It’s one-in, one-out with a growing queue as news of Peace’s identity as the ‘special guests’ at The Haunt on Friday night spreads. Opening with breakthrough single ‘Follow Baby’ and using their midnight set to drop in a couple of newbies among the way - not least new single ‘Money’ - it’s hard not to imagine this is a more focused, tighter Peace than before.

The name Adult Jazz has to be tongue in cheek. The Leeds band - opening for Wild Beasts in the huge Dome - mess around with structures and sounds, and fair enough there’s a fair bit of farting about. But if this is indulgence, it’s like indulging in a chocolate orange - there’s plenty to share. One song lurches on beyond ten minutes, travelling through Bon Iver-style songwriting and frazzled, tribal percussion, like a traveller hoping to see the whole world in a fortnight. It works.

It seems improbable - almost like if fish suddenly launched out of water, grew legs and ordered a flat white in a cafe - but These New Puritans’ Jack Barnett can actually sing. Orchestrating a grand and stately set, he’s very much a frontman, albeit of the unconventional kind. For years he’s almost damned his own voice, once threatening to remove it from the TNP formulae altogether. But amongst the breakneck drums and grandiose horns, it’s his weird, deep-toned call to arms that stands out.

There’s nothing disproving the notion that Wild Beasts are a band on the up. Four records in - with their best arriving in the recent ‘Present Tense’ - they’re in rude form tonight. The first time they played The Great Escape, they shared a pub-venue bill with Bon Iver and No Age. ‘A humbling experience,’ the band’s Tom Fleming notes. But here they’ve earned a headline status, mixing oldies (‘The Devil’s Crayon’) with the disco-twist of their new material. ‘A Simple Beautiful Truth’ beams to life, but it’s in latest record centrepiece ‘Pregnant Pause’ that they truly announce themselves as something special.

On any other weekend of the year, it could only be assumed that The East Wing is used for conferences or wedding receptions. Tonight though, as Albert Hammond Jr. takes to the stage, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Running through a selection of takes from recent EP ‘AHJ’ to the packed room, he’s both witty and infectious; oozing that sense of cool and ever-so-subtle quirkiness that made him so great in the first place.

Just eleven hours after their most recent show - their late night set took place at just 1.30am the night before - Gnarwolves are surprisingly raring to go for a Saturday lunchtime. Jokingly admitting that he’s usually still asleep at this time on a weekend, guitarist Thom Weeks leads the trio effortlessly through a full-throttle set of their punk anthems, even chucking in a future album cut for good measure. It almost doesn’t matter that their crowd seem a little too bleary-eyed to get rowdy.

While The Xcerts may have slinked away from the collective radar over the past six months, they’ve certainly not lost their knack for feedback-layered rock. Tumbling headfirst through a mesmerising array of their back catalogue, the three-piece reacquaint themselves with their hometown crowd while also giving an insight into the more pop tendencies of album number three.

It’s a selection of firsts for Twin Atlantic, as they take to the stage at The East Wing. Whether it be because it’s their first headline show in over a year, their first time at The Great Escape, or simply just their first set of the day, there’s a renewed energy in the Scottish four-piece that makes them an absolute joy to witness. Also treated to the debut performance of their return single ‘Heart And Soul’, the crowd leaves more than content with the first preview of ‘Great Divide’. Now, it’s just a case of what else is in store.

Charli XCX has never been one to be coy. That much is evident from her intro music alone; entering the stage to Iggy Azalea’s ‘Fancy’, it’s half hoped that the star will burst into song for her chorus contribution but alas, it’s not to happen. Her set, however, is full of the sass that Charli has become so renowned for. Backed by a full live band, she’s as fierce as ever, with her new additions giving tracks like ‘Superlove’ a whole new edge.

Irish four-piece Girl Band blow minds when they take to the stage with their brand of amped-up post-punk. Combining Pavement-esque nonsense with teenage angst shenanigans, they prompt one question: Who else can cause a racket this loud with a bass guitar and a beer can instead of a guitar pick? The Dubliners achieve everything they want with a couple of instruments and a microphone. Nothing but James Murphy-style nonchalance and fizzing, swarming riffs pull it off. This is a special band.

Jumping until the lights go out, MØ is in the form of her life - pigtails swing, arms don’t leave the air. There’s enough in the Swedish star’s set to cover everything. She starts with the Diplo-produced ‘XXX 88’ before running onto the Lana Del Rey-style ‘Never Wanna Know’. There’s a variation in punch and excitability in one sense, but there’s not a speck of energy that MØ doesn’t give to this set. It’s easy to imagine that this is the case for every show, regardless of where she plays.

Let’s be honest; Pulled Apart By Horses need no real introduction. Experts in all things loud, the four-piece waste no time in cranking things up to eleven, even with their slot beginning well after midnight. Running through a selection of old favourites, that’s not all that’s on tonight’s bill. They also serve up a slice of their newer material, and it sure sounds tasty.

Klaxons’ set at The Warren might have been the festival’s worst-kept secret, but that didn’t stop the band - decked in their now customary shiny stage attire - from blasting through hits both new and old to an excitable audience. Sure, some of them may still have been in short trousers when breakthrough hits ‘Gravity’s Rainbow’ and ‘Atlantis To Interzone’ were originally released, but with the more guitar-driven interpretation of their latest bangers, they’re evidently still on strong form.

Lunchtime isn’t often when full-blown gigs occur, and the light seeping through the blacked-out windows during Kaiser Chiefs’ not-so-secret does create a somewhat strange atmosphere. That’s not something that’s worrying frontman Ricky Wilson, however, as the now TV superstar kicks, jumps and screams his way through the band’s mix of brand new and decade-old material as energetically as ever, ‘I Predict A Riot’ having him swinging from the relatively small room’s dusty rafters.

With zero introduction and not an awful lot of build-up, Tom Vek doesn’t so much introduce himself as launch headfirst into a post-midnight set of adored oldies and exciting new tracks from his ‘Luck’ LP. There’s no telling apart a celebrated triumph like ‘C-C (You Set The Fire In Me)’ to completely unheard songs getting their live debut - they’re every bit as sharp as each other.

Festival closers couldn’t come much better than Jon Hopkins. He’s largely behind gadgets and fancy LED pads, but there’s enough in the Mercury Prize-nominated producer’s work to give off genuine feeling instead of a reproduction of intense studio habits. Songs from his latest ‘Immunity’ LP fill the Corn Exchange without a moment’s pause, spinning in and out of control as Hopkins manipulates his recordings into stranger beings. Given the surreal weekend that’s preceded, this makes a lot of sense.