THE GREAT ESCAPE: Day Three [The Great Escape Uncut]

THE GREAT ESCAPE: Day Three

Posted on May 19, 2008 7:07 PM
0 comments

Review by Zarina Raja

With The Great Escape drawing to an end, Saturday night looked set to be a big one.

After catching Ida Maria doing a midday gig on the balcony of the Theatre Royal, we headed to the Unitarian Church to interview Sarabeth Tucek – a solo artist who has toured with the legendary Bob Dylan.

As the night drew in, the Brighton Coalition looked set to be the only place to be with Robots In Disguise performing. Obvious Boosh fans and Electro/Pop wannabes (including myself) huddled in at the front of the stage in order to get as close as possible to Dee Plume and Sue Denim.

The girls burst on to the stage, adorned in ultra-tight trousers and skin-tight tops. They had fat, black, tear drops dripping from one eye giving them that Coco Rosie edge. As always, they looked – and sounded – the part.

The set was as exuberant as usual. Sue and Dee churned out their screechy vocals, fell in to early 90s girl band type dance routines, and jammed along to ultra cool Android’s drum beats.

They threw themselves into the obeying crowd and spent a good duration of the gig hyping up fans and shoving their microphones into the audience.

The Sex Has Made Me Stupid and Turn It Up went down a storm, as did other tracks from their new album, We’re in the Music Biz.

For an enthusiastic Robots fan, the set wasn’t long enough, loud enough or late enough, but it certainly kicked off a storming Saturday night.

After the Robots had done their thing, the Barfly beckoned with Electronic/Clash band, Crystal Castles, as the Saturday night headline act.

Time trickled away from me as the Barfly cranked out hours of dire Indie songs and some very poor party tunes. As two am struck and Crystal Castles came on, the atmosphere turned from lank to wonderfully electric.

Leaving my possessions aside (uh, including my shoes), I let myself get lost in the crowd who were lapping up the dirty Electro beats and slurred vocals.

Singer Alice Glass spent the majority of the gig suspended over the mesmerized crowd, screaming into the microphone as they lunged forward, itching to get nearer, and dramatically immersing themselves in the music.

The set impressed me after having heard that, despite the hype, Crystal Castles were a bit tame. This was certainly not true and was the best act – alongside Robots in Disguise – that I saw over the weekend.