Disclaimer: The following review was written due to a request by Dr Martens, in which the reviewer received a pair of Dr Martens shoes for doing so. All words are the author’s own, and the review remains an unbiased view of the evening.
I arrived at The Green Door Store at just past 9pm. It was Thursday, the first day of The Great Escape, and already the venue was starting to fill up. Grabbing a beer from the bar I headed toward the first act I would see tonight…
Skinny Girl Diet
This 3 piece formed in London are full of the attitude and energy you would expect from a politically charged punk band with feminism high on their agenda. The sound can be likened to surfing a rough sea angrily, mad at the beach because the weather is awful and the rain is lashing across your face.
Despite this you are determined to pull through, to ride out this wave as the winner, conquering everything that’s thrown at you. It’s rough around the edges, it’s angry in places, but it’s skilfully put together and got the packed out crowd nodding along (I arrived too late to make it into the stage area of The Green Door Store, settling for a space in the bar where I peered over the heads of other delegates and fitted my zoom lens to try and snap some pics). By the time I had a good position their performance was over and it was on to…
Chastity Belt
Another all female group to grace the stage of Green Door Store, Chastity Belt are an American Indie Pop / Rock group who have hints of Best Coast within their sound. Imagine paddling on a shoreline getting sand between your toes as the waves splash against your ankles. It’s calming but contains that thrill that one of these waves might send you toppling over.
If you’re looking for some indie pop/rock to compliment your summer playlist you can do a lot worse than Chastity Belt. With two very different styles I had no idea what to expect next, but it turned out that Chastity Belt were the eye of the storm, and things were about to get very in our face for…
Dolores Haze
Loud, angry, in your face… Dolores Haze know how to get your attention and keep it. The first thing I thought of when I heard this Swedish goth-punk outfit was how much they resembled Peaches. Then they went and dropped a cover of Fuck The Pain Away, as if to prove my point.
Most of the tracks played were guitar led, but I took a bit of a shine to ‘I Got My Gun’ which features an 8-bit chip tune style backing track that gives rise to a genre I have decided to call: Punkémon.
On the Saturday, I headed into town, where a popp-up Dr Martens van was based with a built in photo booth allowing you to show off your style (and get 20% off some new shoes too!). Here’s me looking far too excited…
That’s about it from me at The Great Escape this year. Hopefully you enjoyed your time at the festival as much as I did!