More shots that I didn't bother enumerating this time around. Check the gallery out!
NxNE would truly be nothing without the die-hards, those music fans with 19 bands on their lists and the determination to defy time, space, and gravity itself, to see them all. Meet Tricia Douglas.
"Yesterday I checked out Still Life Still, I saw them here at Silver Dollar. And then I saw the Pinker Tones at the El Mocambo, and they were really awesome," she raves.
"And then we went to The Rivoli and saw Creature, they're from Montreal and they're FANTASTIC. And then today I saw Strata, they're from California, I saw those guys at Lee's Palace and they were fantastic as well and I stayed a bit to see Tara Sloan but she wasn't that fantastic.
"And then I came here for No Dynamics and they were awesome."
Now that, is a high quotient of music. Just out of curiousity, where is she getting the endurance?
"I'm just obsessed with music."
One of the things about festivals is that you just can't always see what you want. Er... but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you see what you need.
Take Derek, who also operates under the name Grasshopper, and is in the Toronto supergroup 10,000 Watt Head with Carl from No Dynamics, Dane from The Arcade Fire, Mike from Acid Test, and Greg Collins of Ninja High School.
He made his way to the Silver Dollar early but still couldn't catch his friend and favourite act.
"I wanted to catch Nifty but I missed Nifty," says Derek. "I got here right as he carried his gear out... and then I helped him carry it home."
It was a small victory for Grashopper -- a bigger one was getting to see No Dynamics at the same venue later in the night.
"I also saw the Two Koreas here," he recalls. "And I saw somebody at Tiger Bar but I don't remember."
A whopping 48 photos have been added to the NXNE gallery! Got photos of your own from NXNE? Post to the NOW Magazine group on flickr and tag it with NXNE.
Don't cry for Andreka and Jessica, the Torontonians from Argentina who fused the former's stagette party with the NxNE festivities, making their way into the recently reunited Urge Overkill show at Lee's.
Jessica can't contain her enthusiasm: "It was triple-sick. It was so sick that I'm sick right now! It was excellent. Unbelievable."
How so?
"The music, the energy, the way they played their percussion," she says. "The way they just took over the stage. It was orgasmic to see them reunited."
It's not long before the topic of Che Guevara comes up, as he's from their home country.
"It's good that you know that," says Andreka. "A lot of people think he's from Cuba."
How do they feel about all these people out at NxNE walking around with fashionable Che shirts?
"I would say less shirts, and more revolución!"
It's been many years since I've played a gig as part of NXNE, so I was somewhat eager to see what it was going to be like this time around. Having said that, I'm also not expecting that much - NXNE can be great if there's already a buzz behind your band, but otherwise you can expect to get lost amid the competition.
We're supposed to load in at 6 pm, which is pretty early by rock club standards. Predictably, the club itself is still locked up, and there's a bunch of musicians and gear spread out on the sidewalk. Time to get a coffee and wait.
Eventually someone shows up to unlock the doors, and we all bring our equipment down into the recesses of the Comfort Zone. It's pretty surreal being in hear with the lights on, as it's a drastically different vibe than the infamous all-day after-parties that they're known for. It actually looks a lot cleaner and less sketchy than you'd expect.
Watching the other bands lifting their amps down the stairs, I'm already wishing that we hadn't decided to use the NXNE provided back line (ie. the amps and drums provided). Not that there's anything wrong with the Marshall stack I'll be playing through, just that you get comfortable with your own gear, as you know how it's going to react and sound.
One of the organisers pulls us aside and tells us she has some bad news. Apparently, the night before the club was visited by the liquor police, who decided to revoke their temporary special events permit, meaning that there would be no booze at the rock show. Uh oh. At least the Silver Dollar upstairs has a proper bar, and they share a patio, so we scoot up there for some refreshments.
The patio is full of potheads, as there's some High Times related event upstairs. I like weed as much as the next Canadian, but I have to admit that many in this bunch are making a poor case for the pot head stereotype. Lots of sandals-and-socks, poor personal hygiene, assorted fashion disasters, and disturbingly violent coughing.
I spot Dean Dallas Bentley, who's been filling in on drums for James Payment while he's been away on tour with Do Make Say Think. He holds up his arm, which is wrapped in a tensor bandage, and tells me he hurt it the night before at one of the several C'mon shows he played. Not a great omen for his first show with us. He says he probably won't have to hit the drums hard tonight anyway, as it's a very 'live' room.
Suddenly it's almost time to go on, so I descent into the Comfort Zone to set up. Get what seems like a reasonable tone and volume, and look out to see about 4 people in the audience. Oh well - it isn't even 9 yet, and there isn't any booze, so what can you expect.
We launch into the first song, and immediately I understand what Dean meant - all I can hear is the drums, and a wash of noisy reverb bouncing back at us from the room. Midway through the song I get a chance to turn up enough so that I can at least hear what I'm doing, but I'm just hoping that in the audience it sounds more like music than what we're hearing on stage. To be fair to the venue, it's not normally a live club, and as a dance club, it actually sounds pretty good by Toronto standards.
Bodies start trickling in over the next couple songs, which is encouraging. As far as I can hear, we're playing reasonably well, and our organ player Shelton Deverell has cranked up his volume too, so I know that at least the two of us and Dean are doing the changes in the same spots.
As long as I'm being a whiny musician (aren't blogs all about being self indulgent?), can I just take this moment to say that I think Marshall amps are overrated? I mean, they do what they do very well, but getting them to do anything else is pain in the ass. I don't mind when other people play through them, but the only time I've even enjoyed playing through one myself was through an old late 60s model, which is quite a different beast. It's my own fault for not trucking out the Ampeg that I usually play through, so I should probably stop complaining.
Suddenly it's the end of the set - I guess I'd forgotten how short these showcases are. I throw my effect pedals and cables into my bag and pack up my guitar to make room for the next band, and slip out the door so that I can make it across town in time to meet my photographer and do my Now Magazine duties.
Overall a bit under whelming of an experience, but not significantly different from the other times I've played this festival (or CMW for that matter) with different bands, so I knew what to expect. Lessons learned? Bring your own gear if you're a prima donna like me, hide a flask in your guitar case just in case, and maybe hire a publicist or two to try to hype your gig.
Some folks just mosey into NxNE with a Zen philosophy, choosing to let the energy guide them where it will. Or something. This seems to be the case, anyway, with Dan, Janice and Gabriel, here from Brampton and Toronto to see what the NxNE hype is about.
Their first stop?
"We just went by the El Mocambo but the ticket was $15 and it wasn't anybody we wanted to see," says Janice frankly with her friends outside the legendary Horseshoe Tavern.
"--But now we're here to see You Say Party! We Say Die!" Dan cuts in.
"We're probably not the best people to be talking to," laughs Gabriel. But the three can't deny that they enjoy the atmosphere the fest has brought to the city.
Come Friday night I thought I'd try something a little different and choose bands to see not based on any previous knowledge or, like, "buzz" I'd heard about them, but instead simply by where they were playing. It would be arbitrary. Like closing your eyes, opening the fridge and grabbing a few random things to put in your mouth. Some could be tasty like maybe pickles or strawberries, and some could be not so much, like honeycomb tripe or a box of baking soda. And so it was, just like the aforementioned food analogy, a night of good and not-so-good.
First off was a stop at the Big Bop because, well, it has three levels so me and my lady friend figured if one band was wack we could check out others that might be un-wack. We popped into the Kathedral first, which was full with a young, fashionable crowd decked out in tight jeans, bang-heavy hair dos, tight, obscure hardcore band shirts and studded belts. Could it be? Was this like, EMO NIGHT or something magical like that?!?!? It was!!!
So first band we saw was called Cauterize, who were from Oshawa, and who sounded pretty much like Taking Back Sunday, which is to say that they sounded fantastically unoriginal. I noticed they'd also stuck up a bunch of their posters that indicated their recent EP had been produced by one of Canada's brightest and accomplished musical trend bottom-feeders, ex-Treble Charger dude/former Sum 41 manager Greg Nori. Remember that he was they guy that turned his actually not bad indie-rock outfit into an embarrassing pop-punk act (American Psycho anybody?). So basically if he's involved with something one can only assume that it's already been done to death. It's not like Cauterize were bad players or anything, and they certainly understood pop song dynamics, but the amount of unoriginality left them sounding no better than every other Alternative Press-approved band out there, of which there are many. A for effort though.
Then this band from Burlington came on called Sydney. They sounded exactly like Taking Back Sunday as well. They even did that sing/scream thing with these really earnest-sounding vocals and lots of what looked to be pre-choreographed posturing, like they were really feeling the music. People seemed to like them though, and they'll probably actually end up being moderately popular with the kids, but after them and Cauterize's set, I can't help but assume that emo bands are now officially the new boy bands.
Upstairs there was this awesome band from Montreal called Hollerado. They dressed like the Beatles and sounded kind of like Joel Plaskett, but all four of them sang, including the drummer. They were incredibly charming and tight-sounding. Unfortunately not many people were there to see them, which was a shame.
There was this Australian Night at Rancho Relaxo, so we went there to check out this dude named Lindsay Phillips. He was pretty tall and he wore cowboy boots. He had this dark folk vibe going on with this really rich baritone voice that sounded like Nick Cave and the guy from Crash Test Dummies (but nearly as annoying as Brad Roberts). It all sounded nice when we could hear it, but it sure is difficult to hear someone performing when the entire freaking bar is talking over it. Phillips would have done way better had people actually been listening to him.
Action Makes played at the Silver Dollar later, and they were awesome. They sounded all garage-rock and bluesy post-punk sometimes. Then theyhad Adam from the Easy Targets come up and play harmonica, which was cool cause he's a really good harmonica player.
There are plenty of aritsts and industry people among the concert-goers NxNE but few can say they're as involved as Bushra Mahmood, organizer of Rock The Coliseum.
The two-day music festival is going down at 300 City Centre Drive in Mississauga (across from Square One) on June 23 and 24 from 11 am to 11 pm.
"It's basically an attempt to bring back the Mississauga arts scene because we haven't had a real venue since forever," she says outside the Hideout, where Amy Honey, Jean Caffeine, Hojas Rojas, AA Sound System, and Blackloud played.
On her own festival's bill, on the first day, they've got The Creep Show, The Johnstones, Keepin' 6 release party, and Beautiful Nothing.
The next day's got Vulcan Dub Squad and Five Blank Pages among others at a venue Bushra feels highly invested in.
"It's a dome, and I built a stage in the middle -- it cost me like $35,000, all from sponsorship money. But it's going to be Mississauga's largest music and arts festival.
"Although I am competing with Pride... but it's OK though."
The artists at NxNE sure do get a lot of attention, don't they? And I love them like my own children, all 450 of them, don't get me wrong. But without the music-loving people who light up the town each year to take in the jams, this festival would be worth about as much as Drew Carey without his familiar signature lunettes -- aka nothing. Yeah, the fans at NxNE have all got stories too. So please, join me in celebrating the folks I'm calling "Jason's people."
While a spry looking Andy Cairns and his lively Therapy? crew were showing the packed El Mocambo crowd that they could still rock like men in their 30s, outside the club the rag-tag Friday night posse of Urge Overkill's swankly chapeaued Nash Kato, Teenage Head's Gordie Lewis and Ramones producer Daniel Rey were making idle conversation about Hamilton high school rivalries before heading over to the Silver Dollar for the Soundtrack Of Our Lives.
Pushing through the enormous crowd gathered at the club's front door, I was shocked to be greeted by the mischievously grinning Soundtrack singer Ebbot Lundberg already decked out in his stagewear (a custom-cut black tunic emblazoned with twin white racing stripes down the front) who shook my hand with his left because in his right he was tightly clutching a bunch of recent singles on Davy Love's Magnifcent Sevens label.
Although it was just a short time to the scheduled 1 am lift-off but it would be another 20 minutes before Lundberg and crew would make their grand entrance. Unbeknownst to the fidgety shoulder-to-shoulder assembly, there were still some adjustments to be made to the gear set up on stage. As we stood by and watched in amazement, a hairy mad-scientist of drum tech took a seat behind the kit, took out a tape measure and fastidiously checked and corrected the height of each cymbal, presumably to meet the exacting specifications of Soundtrack flailer Fredrik Sandsten. Hilarious right? Well, the punch line is that when the group finally appears, the first thing that Sandsten does after taking his seat on the drum stool is re-adjust the height of all the cymbals!
Hey guys, just to let you know I've got the NOW NXNE Photo Gallery up, which I'll be updating over the weekend with what NOW photogs send me. NXNE Radio's up too, so listen to what's on this weekend as you peruse the site.
Tim and Sarah are on blog duty, giving you the run down on what they're up to.
Reader Paulette has already left her initial impressions down. So what have you seen? Good? Bad? I have some shots from Palais that I need to rescue from my SD card. Will post those this weekend when I get a chance.
A paired-down touring version of Austin's Future Clouds and Radar, led by an uncharacteristically hairy Robert Harrison, put on a dazzling display of highly melodic psych-pop at the Horseshoe that recalled the early work of his former group Cotton Mather while over at the Boat, an amped up Les Breastfeeders were turning the half-filled venue upside down while a line-up of 60 people where forced to listen from outside. Those who left rather than wait for people to leave missed a ambunctious set from Pride Tiger who were blastin' the boogie Thin Lizzy-style. But the EMI-signed East Vancouver fuds will be back to kick out the jams at Lee's Palace June 30.
An hour before the sturm und drang of the NXNE showcases began Thursday night, music biz sharpie Joe Boyd got this year's festival off to a quietly entertaining start with a reading from his revaltory memoir White Bicycles -- Making Music In The 60s for a spellbound crowd at the NOW Lounge.
After revisiting the chapters concerning the sad emergence of Dick Clark and the sadder decline of Syd Barrett, the strangely youthful looking entreprenurial producer added some local colour to his talk with a tale about how he assembled the Lovin' Spoonful which oddly began with a benny-fueled trip to Toronto, a wild party with Zal Yanofsky at the home of Ian and Sylvia Tyson, unbeknownst to the iconic folk duo were away on the road while the crazy debauchery was taking place.
After recounting how he pitched Elektra's Jac Holzman on the ideas of signing Eric Clapton and Pink Floyd only to be shot down on both bids by the clueless label boss, Boyd was peppered with questions from the audience like "Do you have an aging portrait of yourself hidden away in a closet at home?" and "can you tell us another story about Richard Thompson?" which carried the session past its alotted time but no one was complaining.
NXNE kicks it tonight at Palais Royale, so say hi if you're around. Otherwise, the NXNE minisite is going up tomorrow around noon. Just needed some extra time to figure out we're going to collect and update the photos. We're going to use that nifty flash gallery we used for the Love & Sex Guide.
Until then, figure out your schedule with this awesome schedule for NXNE that Rick made, that even got props on blogTO!
In other non-NXNE news, check out the NOW BETA site. Rick's also been working on this. It looks roughly the same, (we're redesigning, but that's later.. need to make things work first), but - well, the BETA site message will let you in on the details.
Let me know what's on your mind regarding the site! Comment here or send cattle prods of doom to jenc AT nowtoronto.com if you're so inclined.
