The festival is finally over and I’ve now seen a total of 26 bands over 3 days – quite impressive! There were a few unpleasant experiences (We’re Marching On, Foals) but overall I’ve been highly impressed by the bands I’ve seen and have a few new favourites as well. Here are my thoughts on the performances I saw last night:
Jamie Woon
A kind of anti-folk singer who used lots of special effects on his voice, which sounded very nice but his songs were quite samey and droned on a bit after a while.
The Metros
A bunch of laddish teenage boys in football shirts, this lot were definitely not for me but they did seem to get a good reaction from the crowd and pulled in plenty of punters considering it was early in the evening.
Polarkreis 18
I didn’t see much of these and I have to say I found them quite boring, but I could at least say I saw a German band, as I don’t know if I ever have before.
(We Are) Performance
I’d heard about these from #1 Hits on Another Planet, and they did have some good songs (and some adorable fans dancing at the front) but the singer was very weird! He looked very pained and kept biting his arm and acting generally scary.
The Sonic Hearts
These were playing inside a giant upside down purple cow, which was certainly a novelty! They were sweet and had some nice songs, but nothing Earth-shattering.
The Midway State
After turning up for Kate Nash to find a ginormous queue, and not having time to walk to Captain, I decided to head across the road to see this band, who I saw the end of yesterday. I worked out who they remind me of (Ben Folds) and Googling shows it’s not just me who thinks so. I can imagine them being quite big in America but I’m not sure if the success will translate to the UK. Unaware and What You Need Is Love are great songs, anyway.
The WinterKids
I only found out on Saturday morning that these guys were playing, so I spent the whole day being super-excited. I’d been wondering for months why they weren’t playing this festival and even sent them a MySpace message once suggesting it. They were different to how I expected as the singing was almost all done by the frontman, not shared between him and the girl, although this is cos they didn’t do Somebody Else’s Clothes or Who Am I Kidding. It was great to hear Tape It and 2 Nights 2 Days, which I’ve been listening to loads in the past few months, and they previewed their new single Wonderland, which I also really enjoyed. Apparently they’ve been supporting Mika so I reckon superstardom is not far away – they’re the kind of band I just can’t imagine not being a success.
Good Shoes
We caught the last half of Good Shoes and I was surprised to find I recognised 3 of the 5 or so songs we heard, and even have one (Small Town Girl, their first single from 2005) on my computer, downloaded long ago from FluxBlog, but had always thought they were American. They put on a good show musically even if they were quite boring to look at (they seem much prettier in photos – airbrushing obviously!) and the venue had a fun atmosphere. I was only left with one question unresolved… if they are Good Shoes, then who on Earth are Good Books?
The Answering Machine
A fairly jolly American band, but they didn’t make a huge impression on me. I was there for Bonde Do Role, and waited an hour for them before an announcement that there were technical problems and they wouldn’t be playing tonight! No-one seems to know what happened, but the boos began and we decided to head off to get food before any riots started!
So, that’s it for Great Escape 2007! I had a great time and I’ll definitely be coming back next year. I also can’t wait to see which of this year’s bands go on to be huge stars over the coming year, as I’m sure several will. I think Ghosts, WinterKids, Good Shoes and Pigeon Detectives have big things ahead of them, definitely.