The third annual Great Escape festival is go, dear readers. In fact, Famethrowa is busily dispatching this message from his bolt-hole in Brighton, a coastal town where you need a pretty good excuse not to be having a good time, all of the time. As such, rock'n'roll has found the definitive UK home for our equivalent of SXSW, as industry conferences and debauched 4am shows collide chaotically with no conscience or care for tomorrow. Personally, last night's kick-off was a fairly restrained affair, not least for the three day marathon ahead but also the eternal difficulties in actually getting in to some of the shows.

No matter because in the space of four hours, Bon Iver, the unpronounceable (and unwatchable) Ungdomskulen, Wild Beasts, Ladyhawke and Okkervil River were all on the menu and digested for good or bad. Attempts to see Late Of The Pier and Pete And The Pirates were not so successful due to the traditional queues seemingly stretching into the English Channel. But by this point it was gloriously obvious what the highlight of the day (week and probably month) was going to be. Namely Bon Iver, the emergent Wisconsin folk-rock outfit centred around Justin Vernon, who are surely about to become very famous indeed. That's not to say the word isn't already out.

Opening up as pretty much the first band here, the three-piece filled-out Pressure Point more like The Ting Tings than relative newcomers. Loosely sharing a kinship with the rustic, restless Americana of the likes of Iron & Wine, Midlake and Fleet Foxes, they're founded on Vernon's chilling falsetto and the group's sharp sonic turns and choral interplay. Playing songs from debut "For Emma, Forever Ago", this was a display of note for many reasons, namely the ecstatic, communal interaction on "The Wolves"' extended outro, which saw the entire crowd chanting as one with total abandon little more than minutes after being introduced to the band. Bon Iver play the Great Escape again on Saturday. If you can get there, you really should...

Today's Famethrowa's

New: "The Devil's Crayon" Wild Beasts
Old: "What Is The Light" The Flaming Lips