For the first time since it was launched two years ago, Jeremy and I have actually been in Brighton for the Great Escape Festival. The festival bills itself as a European South by Southwest, and while that’s a bit of a stretch, there’s no doubt that a whole lot of live music is performed over the three days of the Great Escape.

Once we made it through the disastrous wristband-collecting process on the first day of the festival, we had a nice, music-filled weekend. On the first evening we started off in the Pavilion Theatre, where we caught most of the set by Sunset Rubdown, a Montreal band with a sound not massively dissimilar to Arcade Fire. After Sunset Rubdown, we stuck around to see Okkervil River. The bands at the Great Escape get just half-hour slots, and Okkervil River definitely made the most of their 30 minutes, knocking out a tight, energetic set that was brilliant to experience. They played a lot of their catchiest, rockiest stuff. When the last song rolled around, Will Sheff said, “This is for everyone who’s been there from the beginning”—and I shrieked like a banshee before he even knocked out the opening chords of Westfall. I also got a warm little glow as I realized that, yeah, I had been there from the beginning—or, at least, from 2003, which is when we saw them in Brighton for the first time.

Okkervil River finished up at around 11 p.m., at which point Jeremy and I trooped over to another venue with some of our friends in the hope of catching a (very) late show by Yeasayer and the Ting Tings. Unfortunately, much of the rest of Brighton clearly had the same idea, so we wound up standing in line for a good hour or more before our patience (read: sheer stubborn-mindedness) was rewarded and we were let into the venue. We only caught the last two songs of the Yeasayer set, but one of those songs was a song I really like, so I was rather pleased. And though the Ting Tings took forever to get on stage, when they finally did start to play they were fabulously energetic and danceable—thank goodness, too, because by that time it was about 3 a.m. and we were all exhausted.

We took it somewhat easy on the second evening, heading out after a home-cooked dinner and peeking into a nearby venue long enough to determine we didn’t like band that was playing there before moving on into town where we hoped to catch the Young Knives. Again, we were not the only ones with this plan, so we wound up standing in line once more. This line was even more frustrating than the previous evening’s thanks to the REALLY LOUD GUYS BEHIND US WHO HAD TO SHOUT EVERY BLESSED THING THEY SAID and to the fact that when there were just five people ahead of us, the line stalled for ages, leaving us stuck outside listening to the shouty guys instead of being inside listening to the bands.

Eventually we did get let in and, again, caught the last two songs of the band playing before the Young Knives. Then the Young Knives came out and…wow. You would never expect such witty banter and catchy, incredibly tight indie pop songs from such completely geeky looking guys. I enjoyed their set from beginning to end, and my neck was sore the next day from all the head-bobbing I was doing. It was definitely worth putting up with the line to see these guys play; their recordings are quite nice, but they are much more rockin’ live, and you only really get the full impact of their excellent musicianship when you actually see them in person. Great stuff.

Not wanting the evening to end after that, we made our way to the Prince Albert to see a band which had been billed as playing “nightmare circus music” (totally my thing) but which was, in fact, playing hippie-ish, funky-ish, prog-ish rock (really, really not my thing). The tiny venue was hot and packed, so we only stayed long enough for a single beer and then went home to have an early night.

On the final evening of the festival, we decided not to stray from a one-block radius around our house—a fairly simple task, seeing as we live two doors down from one venue and one street over from another. Our original plan was to catch Lightspeed Champion at the Old Market, then move to the Providence for The Shortwave Set and return to the Old Market for Black Mountain. Unfortunately (in a way), just after we made it into the Old Market, a huge line started to form outside, so after the (disappointing) set by Lightspeed Champion, Jeremy and I decided to just stay put to see Fujiya + Miyagi, a Brighton band we’d never seen.

Fujiya + Miyagi were quite fun in a Krautrock sorta way, but the real highlight of the evening (and definitely one of the highlights of the festival) was Black Mountain, a band which just RAWKS. There was a great deal of long hair and many beards present for the Black Mountain gig, both on stage and in the audience, and it’s easy to see why: Black Mountain have the full 1970s stoner hair-rock thing going on, but with soaring female vocals and a contemporary flair. My already-sore neck was not helped by the mild head-banging I was prompted to do while rocking out to Black Mountain—but hey, that’s rock and roll. It was a great gig.

We finished the evening in a quiet nearby pub, where we talked language and linguistics until they kicked us out, at which point we made a detour to the kebab shop (I know, I know…) before heading home to scarf down our late-night falafels and burgers and collapse into bed. It was a very fun end to a very fun three days of music and friends, and if I’m around for the festival next year, I’ll definitely be getting a ticket again.