The thin line between awe and envy: Day two at The Great Escape 2025
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(Credits: Ele Marchant)
They say those who can’t do, teach. Stood in a room of industry heads with arms crossed, leaving a sizeable gap between them and the front of the stage, I’m wondering how many of them wish they were the one bathed in the spotlight, because I know I do. It’s day two of The Great Escape, and the line between awe and envy is thin.
It started early. Right as the afternoon ticked over, The Roebucks took to the stage of the Three Wise Cats. The best thing about this whole festival is simply trusting others and walking in. I thought I’d never really heard of the band, though later, when they mentioned a track name, I realised I’d put it in the Big Indie Playlist once. But by this point, I was already sold by a knowing nod from our photographer. My faith was repaid as we were instantly greeted with a singing drummer and a blues guitarist who looked like a prairie woman – both a vision, both two of the most hypnotic musicians I’ve ever seen on stage.
That’s when the feeling began. I watched the band, fully indulging in the rich, somewhat-folk, somewhat-western, somewhat-blues of their music as they bounced lead vocals between three members. But in my head, I was mostly thinking, ‘Damn it. Why didn’t I take guitar lessons? Why didn’t I take drum lessons?’ and I’m sure all the other industry lanyard-sporters were thinking the exact same.
But sometimes something is too beautiful to even get there. Watching Folk Bitch Trio in a packed Komedia Basement, I wouldn’t even dare to put myself into the picture. It’s too pure, too perfect as the Melbourne-based group deliver three-part harmonies that could soften the hardest hearts and move anyone to write notes app poetry mid-gig. With a debut announcement in the air, the room was filled with excitement. But one of the key facets of The Great Escape is how quickly it can remind you that live shows are the best conduit for excitement. Incredible harmonies are one thing on recording, but when it’s in front of you, pulling your skin up into goosebumps, it’s a whole other thing.
It’s the same for The Orchestra (For Now) – a band that finds a perfect midground between those two points of awe and admiration, bafflement and pure jealousy. It’s a similar story of trust coming to fruition as The Roebucks were; I’d heard the band’s name but knew little about them, perhaps because it’s tough to explain.
A mammoth lineup featuring a string section that toes the line of musical genres. They simultaneously play like they’re all classical musicians and all crazed rock experimenters. It’s a battle to know who to look at and who to wish you were most; Charlie Hancock, the band’s drummer who could rival the best of them, moving between jazz flare and pure rage in an instant before pulling back to the pior like nothing happened, or Joseph Scarisbrick, their vocalist and pianist who spends the soundtrack pacing back and forth before snapping into it, leading this powerful collective who somehow do feel like an orchestra, or at least have the strength of one.
But, across the entire day’s performances, there is nobody more deserving of envy than Katherine Parlour – the vocalist of Picture Parlour. The airy cool that surrounds her is so encompassing it almost feels unfair. The talent is one thing (and it’s a huge thing as Parlour’s vocals feel like they belong in a different era, as if she could face up to Robert Plant in a singing competition and win), but add on top of that the stage presence? The style? The charm? I’d be seething if I weren’t too busy basking in it. Here, the crossed arms let loose. The band’s nostalgia-informed pure rock and roll is too catchy to resist; people move almost whether they want to or not, dragged along with Parlour as your guide.
Maybe I should’ve stuck with those YouTube guitar tutorials as a kid, but what is that feeling of slight jealousy other than a perfect confirmation that something is good enough to be worth feeling jealous of? There is no better proof that The Great Escape is hosting the next generation of headliners than when seemingly each and every act, from Folk Bitch Trio’s gentle sound to the chaos of The Itch who rounded out the day, all leave you loving music so much that you wish you were making it too.
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