Live Review

From Piss to Adult DVD: the sets we couldn’t stop talking about at The Great Escape

The Great Escape 2026 delivers three days packed with unforgettable sets and future favourites.

From packed-out basement sweatboxes to rain-soaked beach stages and queues snaking down Brighton’s side streets, this year’s Great Escape once again proved why there’s nothing quite like it in the new music calendar.

Across three slightly damp days, the city became a blur of expensive pints, emergency hoodie purchases, frantic venue-hopping and trying to decide whether it was worth walking 35 minutes across town (up a hill) for a band you’d only heard described as “kind of like if Fontaines D.C. made a Sega Dreamcast game”.

As ever, though, the weather barely mattered once the music started. The Great Escape remains unmatched when it comes to the thrill of discovery, and Brighton spent the weekend overflowing with moments that felt impossible to replicate anywhere else.

Westside Cowboy may already have earned their own dedicated victory lap, while Shame left a sizeable dent in the Dork stage with one of the weekend’s biggest sets, but they were far from the only artists making this year’s festival feel electric.

From abrasive noise rock and rave-punk eruptions to packed-out sing-alongs and boundary-pushing performances, here are some of the other bands and artists who defined our Great Escape 2026.

Their Instagram bio might say easy listening, but Piss are anything but. The Vancouver-based four-piece create brilliantly abrasive noise-rock that’s not afraid of the occasional moment of tender beauty, while their songs confront sexual assault and violence against women with unflinching honesty. It’s hard to think of another vocalist who gives so much of themselves onstage as Tay Zantingh, channelling hurt, fury and gut-wrenching fear during a 30-minute set that’s part performance art punk, part communal catharsis. Carefully curated samples from documentaries and news reports tie the band’s personal storytelling into a wider conversation about misogyny, and the entire show exists on the edge of emotionally charged chaos. All this to say, there’s not another band around at the moment who come close to delivering this level of intensity. The boundary-pushing group put on a performance so singular and memorable, it’s a bit of a piss-take. (AS)

Spilling onto the beachfront, Bleech 9:3’s set revels in grabbing everyone gathered and refusing to let go. They cram out The Deep End and then some with a bulldozing show that takes no prisoners. A blistering set that sees Turnstile-esque takeovers meet those pillar post-punk bursts, the likes of ‘Cannonball’ and the scratching explosion of ‘Jacky’ showing a band firmly aware of their power. It’s so runaway that they don’t get the chance to close out their set with a last song played. Showcasing just how feral things at The Great Escape can get, Bleech 9:3 are flying straight to the top. (JM)

“So you didn’t fancy Angine de Poitrine?” says the Itch’s Simon Tyrie as he looks out at an absolutely packed basement. Fears of clashing with the festival’s most hyped polka dot aliens seem unfounded as Patterns soon descends into a heaving, sweating whirlpool.

The band respond to the energy, turning ‘Aux Romanticiser’ into a rave-rap banger and demanding the bass gets turned up to full. ‘Space in the Cab’ and ‘No More Sprechgesang’ are the highlights of a jam-packed 45 minutes, but the biggest cheers are reserved for Ben Hambro’s cowbell solo (yes, really).

The cherry on the cake is an unreleased track – the band may have only just released their debut album, but clearly their eyes are very much pointed towards what’s next. (JH)

Annie-Claude Deschenes / Hologramme

Canada House’s now iconic takeover at the Green Door Store during The Great Escape is a melting pot of the exciting sounds coming out of the country. Indie rippers and captivating performers combine; the hypnotic electronic twist of Hologramme serves as a perfect mid-afternoon invite, but on Friday afternoon, it’s Annie-Claude Deschenes who drops the sort of set that’ll be mentioned across pub tables and venues for the rest of the festival. There’s dank late-night club beats, fizzing punk velocity and squirty cream that’s shot into the mouths of most of the packed-out venue. Outrageously brilliant, it’s soaked in personality - and swimming in it all is a must. (JM)

There aren’t many artists playing The Great Escape whose stage set-up includes a wind machine and a giant toy sword, but it’s the perfect introduction to AU/RA’s high fantasy alt-pop. While her early tracks were all about coming-of-age discomfort and the want for belonging, her upcoming debut album ‘Heartcore’ was created to celebrate the place she feels most seen. Apart from a euphoric remix of breakout track ‘Panic Room’, it’s the more confident newer material that AU/RA pulls from for her Great Escape set.

The trashy, autotuned dance-punk of ‘SWAMP’ is a love letter to world-building; ‘LO/RE’ delivers glitchy, techno-infused escapism. ‘CRACK!’ is a playfully aggressive anthem about fighting for your own happiness, while the pulsating rave rock of ‘Killswitch’ is a viciously good time. (AS)

Slag have a hunger. Their set down on the beach is one that finds them in full unabashed form, led by lead singer Amelie like a conductor over the tent in front of her. The widescreen ‘Still Here’ is both raw and precisely dropped in a set that feels like a band completely letting loose and leaving everything on the stage. ‘Face Off’ sets a marker in the room, and as they fire through a blistering set that sees nobody even think about leaving. If their slots last year at The Great Escape were a growing whisper, tonight is their shout-out statement of intent. (JM)

Packed-out tiny venues are where Brighton thrives during The Great Escape, and Montreal’s Ribbon Skirt fit perfectly into that tradition at Daltons on a Thursday afternoon. With people crammed around the stage, the band feel both hypnotic and ready to erupt at any moment. As a wave of artists continue pushing dense post-rock and punk into new territory, Ribbon Skirt use their set to make a convincing case for themselves as one of the most exciting around. By the end, it feels less like a showcase and more like the start of something much bigger. (JM)

The Great Escape might still be best known as a proving ground for brand new bands, but it’s just as much a celebration of artists stepping into bigger versions of themselves. Lime Garden capture that perfectly. Having already built a reputation for delivering standout moments in Brighton over the years, they arrive at this year’s festival sounding bigger, sharper and more confident than ever.

Tracks from latest album ‘Maybe Not Tonight’ feel made for a busy tent - ‘Body’, ‘All Bad Parts’ and an extended strut through ’23’ land with huge impact, while ‘Love Song’ and ‘Clockwork’ turn the crowd into one giant indie dance floor. Few bands right now balance cool precision and outright fun as effortlessly as Lime Garden, and on this form, it’s hard to imagine them staying on stages this size for much longer. (JM)

The party is here, and it’s called Adult DVD. Queues stream out of the tent, and from the moment they step on stage, they lay down their case for the title of Best Live Band Going. Turning the Deep End into an all-encompassing rave-punk celebration, they fizz and thrive - the opening ‘Coffin Dodger’ a perfect capture of their ability to smash pop hooks that get stuck in your brain and bubbling late-night eruptions. ‘Dogs In The Sun’, ‘Do Something’ and emphatic closer ‘Bill Murray’ see them have their undeniable moment - not just for those in the new music know, but everyone else, too. Adult DVD are in a golden era and somehow the best is still to come. (JM)

Saint Clair are everything a great guitar band should be. Across their cocksure 30-minute set, the London-based four-piece confidently pull from Britpop, grunge, indie, post-punk and alt-rock without sounding like a pale imitation of anything that’s come before. ‘Warm’ kicks things off in unruly fashion before more searing anthems are delivered with a knowing smirk. There’s more to Saint Clair than noisy chaos, though – the melancholic ‘Dreams’ and the aching ‘Changes’ are both pretty, polished and utterly enthralling. They close things out with ‘Too Young To Notice’, a jagged, celebratory slice of youthful excitement. It’s the first (and so far, only) track the band has properly released, but it feels like the start of something special. (AS)

12 months ago, Keo took to The Great Escape and left as a breakthrough name. A year later, they return as one of the festival’s headliners, and the time in between has only seen them strengthen their vision. After a surprise set in the tiny confines of Brighton pub The Black Lion, on the beach, they fill the stage with gritty and raw hooks that leave everyone gathered in awe. ‘Thorn’ and ‘Hands’ have arms in the air, and the fact that they play ‘I Lied, Amber’ halfway through their set tonight signals a grander ambition that refuses to play it safe. With new tracks and a whipping finale, Keo don’t just use their moment at The Great Escape to breakthrough further - but signal that whatever size you thought they could get to, they’re going even bigger. (JM)