Empty shops are sad places; shutters permanently down, no customers and the shelves free of stock. They are cold, lifeless, depressing. They are signs of lost hopes and dreams, of economic hardship. With the help of Out of Place and The Streetwise Samba Band, Escape Act changed all this on Saturday for the release of their second album, Balance, turning an empty storefront in Belfast’s Cornmarket into a place more exciting than the Apple Store on iPhone release day.
BY BEN FINCH