Gig played on 20/05/06

It's day three and we're drawn to the spectacular Spiegeltent to witness a band with perhaps the best name in the world. Sadly, Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly prove to be as brilliantly monikered as they are rubbish musically. It's a one-man show and said man - Sam, apparently - has clearly opted to spend ten years considering the name for his act and one second working on the songs. Rather like James Dean Bradfield climbing into bed with David Gray, as the now lifeless and sensible recordings of Badly Drawn Boy play erotically in the background, this dismal acoustic emoting propels us to suggest he Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly right into the nearby Atlantic.

Franz Ferdinand famously aimed at "music for girls to dance to", but compared to Glasgow's Sh*tdisco, they sound very clunky indeed. Klaxons may garner more attention, but Shitdisco's attempts to play acid house and disco on guitars and cheap keyboards at the Pressue Point really couldn't be more successful. They prove to be one of Saturday evening's highlights.

Scandalously, hordes of paying punters are locked out of The Futureheads' half-full headline show at Beach. Less scandalously, Yahoo! Music spends half the set in a queue too, but the bit we do catch confirms their new stuff to be more commercial and digestible than earlier efforts - which disappoints the part of you that craved even stranger, shorter, speedier songs. Still, the likes of "Manray" and "Carnival Kids" sound staggeringly tight and forceful tonight.

Meanwhile, at Audio many also fail to catch Tapes 'N Tapes as they seek to answer the enormous head of hype they've built up since South By Southwest. Initially aligned with the emergence of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, what we see suggests they're closer in spirit to other US exports such as Pavement. However, while their guitars judder with real purpose and intent and frontman Josh Grier has a sharp lyrical twist - "I've been a better lover with your mother" he insists - they appear to lack either the tunes or anarchic skill displayed by the other two bands name-dropped in this review.

The Longcut have been pussy-footing around with their career for too long now, since 2004's neck-breaking but rather delayed Madchester anthem "Transition". Well, this evening the Pressure Point can see why. 'Singer' Stuart Ogilvie might wish to consider an alternative career as a lonesome air-raid siren, because, sadly, every time he steps out from behind the drums his band is ruined. Imagine robbing the flat of The Rapture's Luke Jenner. This is the sound of him pursuing you up the street, while shouting furiously. It's a shame, because with forthcoming debut LP "A Call And Response", The Longcut have merged their influences - Mogwai, Joy Division and Neu - to quite exhilarating effect.

The Great Escape concludes with British Sea Power at the Hanbury Ballrooms, which is billed as "acoustic" but is actually a loud, electric rock'n'roll show. The highlight is a new song, "Pelican", which closes the set to chaotic scenes of stage-diving and, um, foliage-waving. BSP are continuing to revive Liverpool's post-punk revival of late-'60s British psychedelia, and you suspect their best record is still to come.

So, our conclusion? The Great Escape has been a pleasure for access-all-areas pass-holders, without a doubt. But for paying punters, it's been something off a rip-off. And that can only leave a sour taste for the masses who will be hoping for better treatment in 12 months time when this event surely returns.

by Niall O'Keeffe & Ben Gilbert