NXNE Festival 2014: The Highlights

For NXNE’s 20th edition there were a lot of changes, a new festival director (ex VICE Records A&R Christopher Roberts), new art shows and probably the biggest change was that Toronto’s other big music fest CMW (Canadian Music Week) moved from March to May, just one month before NXNE. Now the folks at NXNE didn’t seem to like this, so this year they introduced a 45 day radius clause stating that no act playing the festival could play in the city of Toronto 45 days prior to the festival. This included of course the dates of CMW and was NXNE’s way of “sticking it to” CMW for infringing on their territory. Unfortunately it ended up hurting a lot of local promoters, venues and artists. Toronto band Birds of Bellwoods played a charity gig 38 days before the festival and got booted off their official NXNE bill - and many many other bands had similar stories.

There was definitely an air of grievance surrounding the start of the festival this year, the 45-day radius clause seemed to be all anyone in the local scene would talk about. Weird Canada founders Marie LeBlanc Flanagan and Aaron Levin started a petition on change.org to abolish the radius clause, NXNE even introduced a panel discussion called “Why NXNE Sucks” and invited local bloggers, artists and other festival promoters to voice their opinions. And then on Friday 20 June, 3 days into the music programming of the festival a press release went out that the radius clause had been abolished and will not be in place next year. Hooray!

Politics aside the festival had it all this year: gigs on the island, gigs on boats, gigs on street cars (public transit tram), gigs on roof tops, backyards and more unofficial shows than ever giving it the feeling that it is slowly becoming more and more like SXSW, including all the corporate sponsorship. The street car gigs were sponsored by MIO Squirt (that not-so-nice fake flavour for your water), the Horseshoe Tavern was renamed “Budweiser Music House” and Toronto Island was renamed “House of Vans / Vice Island” for a day.

Even the opening party on the Wednesday night attracted local politician and Rob Ford’s mayoral candidate competition Olivia Chow. But beside all the free booze, parties, swag and sunshine I did manage to catch a few bands and here’s a list of my festival highlights…

Monomyth

From Halifax, these East Coasters are the new Mint Records (Vancouver) signing (album out in August) and look and sound like a bunch of happy go-lucky jangly pop slackers. Apparently it was their bassist’s “second show”, the first being 2 hours earlier that night. But other than the bassist resembling a teenager who just joined the band, you wouldn’t have been able to tell. These guys were tight. I saw them before in a video rental store in Vancouver and the venue tonight, Handlebar, wasn’t much bigger - they definitely perform well in confined spaces.

Each Other

Up next was another group of East Coasters, however Each Other currently call Montreal home. I’d been digging these guys on record for a while but seeing them live is most interesting if you end up staring at the drummer like I did. He actually had full control of the 3 microphones mic-ing up his floor tom, snare and kick drum. Beside him sat an amp which looked like an old fashioned radio with knobs, he was constantly adjusting these knobs mid-song. He also played an upside down cymbal and used a maraca instead of a stick to drum. It’s these details that make Each Other stand out. Watching them tonight the crowd was mesmerised by all their intricacies and swayed along.

Pizza Underground

I know I’m going to get flack for mentioning this band. But I have to say this wasn’t as bad as everyone has been saying. I was very much waiting to be annoyed and from what I had heard online I thought I would hate them. But it’s just one big dumb joke, right? And if you get people lapping it up cos Macaulay Culkin is in the band then go for it I say. I know recently in Nottingham they got booed off the stage but it was the complete opposite on Thursday night in Toronto. The crowd LOVED it and were digging all the dumb jokes, Macaulay: “And this next song is also about pizza”. My favourite part was actually the Pussy Joel Karaoke which was just a video of cute cats with the lyrics to “We Didn’t Start the Fire” so everyone could sing along. They also gave a shout out to Canadian mega chain Panago, for lending them their pizza box drum for the night, but unfortunately could not even come close to pronouncing it correctly.

Shannon and the Clams

This is the real reason I had stood through the Pizza Underground set. I’ve seen Shannon play a few times before but always in record stores or trashy basement clubs, not to say basement clubs are bad, but in general places with bad sound. So seeing them at a place like Lee’s Palace where the sound is crystal clear and bounces nicely off the crowd and walls was such a pleasure. Shannon and her clams were all glittered up; Shannon had actually spilt a bottle of glitter all over herself before going on stage, oops. These guys and a gal aren’t doing anything exceptionally new but what Shannon and the Clams does do (50s inspired doo-woop, surf and 60s garage rock n roll) they do it right. Guitarist, Cody Blanchard’s vocal range is insane, he can sing so high, higher than most female back up harmonies can go and then back down to a sludgy growl for his lead vocal parts. It was great and the crowd was really responsive and whipped up into a dance frenzy.

Beach Day

You can tell Beach Day are from somewhere sunny (yes, the name would be obvious) but their sound has that sunny feel to it too. Catchy, simple songs about boys, friends and waves they’re like a cross between the Dum Dum Girls and the Shangri-Las. What sets them apart from the slew of like-minded bands is lead singer Kimmy Drake’s amazing voice. She’s definitely in the same league as Shannon and the Clams when it comes to powerful vocals. They ended their set on my fave song “Boys” and it can’t get more straightforward than that.

GOAT

Goat were by far the best band of the festival. When the first line up of the festival was announced a few months ago this was the band I was most excited about. Goat have never been to Toronto before and I had been waiting in anticipation. Appearing on stage in their signature masks, bass player in a burka, the 2 female lead singers in gigantic headdresses came dancing out with incense in hand which filled Lee’s Palace with a faint sweetly smell. To sum it up in a sentence “it’s like a tribal psychedelic dance party where everyone wears masks.” The place was packed and they even did an encore (which is unusual for a NXNE show). I left with a giant grin and so did the other sold out crowd at Lee’s.

Tess Parks

They (Tess and her band) only played four songs (though quite well) as they had to run off to see Spiritualized (festival priorities right!?). Her songs are slow and brooding with just the right mixture of rock n roll, signed to Alan Mcgee’s 359 Music label, Tess Parks is incidentally off to the UK for July.

Calvin Love

It wouldn’t be NXNE without Panache and M for Montreal’s annual Bruise Cruise. Cue Saturday morning and you’ve got a line up of hungover music fans outside the tourist cruise ships looking slightly out of place. After a chaotic boarding we’re treated to a cruise around the city’s harbours and 4 live performances in the banquet hall of the ship. The highlight being Edmonton’s Calvin Love who looks like the lovechild of Jack Cooper of Mazes & Ian Curtis. Swaggering about on stage with an open suit jacket and no shirt, Calvin Love didn’t disappoint with his twisted take on garage pop, incorporating keyboards wherever possible. He’s destined to be a heartthrob rebel.

Zorch

Zorch are a two piece from Austin, but drummer Sam is originally from Toronto so NXNE was kind of like a homecoming show, his mom and dad were even at the gig! These guys have so much equipment; the stage was one giant drum set, synthesizer, rainbow stringed lightshow. Zac and Sam face each other amongst all this equipment and really play off each other looping vocals and sounds, building a chaos of music and sounds and then transcending down to simple beats. It’s definitely something to see live.

Young Mother

I’ve been meaning to see these guys for a few years and finally do the last day of the festival only to find out after they play that this was the last Young Mother gig ever. Apparently their saxophone player has moved away and they only flew him back for NXNE. That’s right this band consists of saxophone, guitar, bass and drums. Bassist Al is ultra groovy, standing almost 7-feet tall in a tie dye hoodie and sunglasses, keeping the beat and not moving more muscles than his fingers. Young Mother sound a bit like Echo & the Bunnymen with freak out punk bits and a saxophone. Luckily singer Jesse James Laderoute is in an equally awesome band called Blonde Elvis so we can still see him strut his stuff even if Young Mother are no more.