My first weekend in Brighton (without my mum and sister) when extremely well with a long evening of bands at the
Great Escape Festival. I party hard with Rowen and
Antz watching several different upcoming bands.
Starting off with two bands from (ironically) New Zealand. Boom Boom Echo and Die Die Die two punk bands bent on being as loud as possible, not really my cup of tea...
But it all when up from there with an alternative band called
Mechanical Bride to start the evening off. An eerie xylophone piece kick of the session and was indented in my mind for the next few hours.
After our short taster of Mechanical Bride we traveled round to a small cave like basement with a small band set up in the corner. Talking regulars fulled the crowded bar with noise and prepared me for a shot performance, but then
they started to play. With jaws on the floor "
The Low Anthems"
had calmed the stormy chatter. With
folky, rocky, jazzy sound and great vocals and lyrics they made a perfect trio. Playing guitar, bass, double bass (made me wish I kept playing), clarinet, drums keyboard and something else. That something else was like a xylophone but with discs and you play it with a bow, it made an amazing sound and just topped off how good these guys were. I will be keeping my eye on them, I think they could make it big. And on to the next venue we when.
Now I suppose you have to take the good with the bad because what came next was a shock to the system.
Mothlite. Picture four guys: 2 on keyboard type things, 1 with what looked to be an old tape recorder and the other with a mic, tambourine and 2 drums and all four playing different songs at once. Oh the sounds of electronic post rock sound (whatever that relay is?). There opening number called "jungle sound" was a combination of beeps, bang and several other strange sounds, that did not remind me of any jungle I've been to. Although in saying that it was a laugh to watch. The guy with the tape recorder was the spitting image of a child from a frog and a zombie. And the singing complained that the sound was just not quite loud enough sending
Antz into an out burst of laughter.
After a bite to eat we headed over to the Prince Albert, a pub in the North
Laine, to hear a band called the
Woodpigeons. Unfortunately we were crammed in a small room on the second floor and almost died from the extreme heat so we headed out side to catch a breather instead. Out side I picked up a glow stick after donating to make a wish foundation. How could my evening get any better, glow sticks rock!! Armed with a glow stick we headed back to were the Mechanical Bride played to see something very different.
Thomas Truax playing his Sister Spinster,
Hornicator and
Stringaling (WHAT?) to make the most absurd music I've ever heard, and that is no way near a bad thing. Singing songs to from the films of David Lynch it was the best way to finish the evening. "These a full moon over wow town to
nightttttttttt!!!" Although it was not the end there was more to come....
We arrive at a house party of some of Rowen and
Antz friends were I was subjected to the festive activity of drunken parents taking full advantage of there night off which was quite a laugh. Although being asked multiple times what kind of music I was in to dose get a tad tedious. Someone even thought I was Rowen and
Antz son
HAHA!!! We still don't know who it was worst for.
A late night but a good one, makes me wonder what else Brighton has to offer.
was a shame because it was f**king fantastic!! From the moment the the first song started (Mama who bore me) I was hooked. The whole show was everything I expected and more. I just want to take the show to bits and examine every cog, wheel and spring and put it all back together then start all over to see if I had missed anything. Since I had read the original play I had a vague idea what was going to happen (not to mention I already know every line to every song) but there were still surprises and twists and turns that truly made this musical a unique piece of art. Yo
u find so many musicals that are all singing, dancing, bright, colorful and buzzing such as Wicked, The Producers, Mama Mia. Not to say anything bad about them, I love these types of musicals, and I have done a few of these myself, but Spring Awakening holds something else. It holds a certain truth and a depth of language which I truly love. The lyrics to every song are of a higher intellect of any other I have heard and the same runs through all the dialogue. The story follows a group of teenagers going though, to put its simple, puberty, and not only self discovery but the discovery of the world around them. A truly brilliant show and one of the best I have ever seen. Although I must say I was more than a little disappointed from the comments of my fellow theater goers. Such as, the music was good but the story not so much, it was to depressing and i don't feel the usual buzz, and (this ones the worst) it was to high school musical for me!!!!!! *gasp* Have you ever seen high school musical Ant? Do you remember any part of High School Musical with swearing, beatings, rape, 
masturbation and pascal nudity, hmm. And that story line was ten, no a million times better, not to mention the music. It is the complete opposite to High School Musical in every way. Dose anyone do in High School Musical, although that wouldn't be a bad thing. If you haven guessed I despise High School Musical. This is a drama musical with comedy aspects, in the same way as Rent, but I didn't feel depressed at the end just buzzing for more. Anyway to my fellow theater goers you are just a bunch of old farts (but I love you really). But to be fair this show is aimed towards the younger generation. Brilliant show and I hope it comes back to the West end because I would be happy to see it again and again and again.
