The Great Escape – Solar Bears + Beth Jeans Houghton

It seems the best electronic acts tend to fall flat at the Great Escape. Following the previous night’s Blanck Mass proving accomplished but unwanted at the same venue, Saturday’s victims of the ‘intelligent DJs playing to audiences uninterested in anything that’s not a guitar’ curse was Solar Bears. Performing pounding dance takes on John Carpenter-style cinematic synth, an indifferent crowd seemed to tap their feet impatiently. Beth Jeans Houghton (who claims she smells like rotting meat) and her five-piece backing band didn’t suffer the same fate. With somehow-not-irritating Mumfords folk-rock mixed with Dresden Dolls idiosyncratic cabaret flourishes, the pastoral kitsch was lent a refreshing edge.

Pavilion Theatre, Brighton Dome, 12 May 2012

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