Festival Diary: Oh! Canada Vs NXNE, Toronto – Part 1

Last week saw over 650 bands take to the clubs, bars, rooftops and public squares of Toronto for the annual NXNE festival. With long established names, hometown heroes and up and coming artists all competing for attention under the baking hot sun, there was always something to watch, listen to or discover. Ro Cemm – the man responsible for our Oh! Canada compilations – was there.

While not part technically part of NXNE, our week kicked off on Thursday morning on the Sky Terrace of hip hotel The Drake for the announcement of the Polaris Prize longlist. Following the announcement, and plenty of friendly debate amongst the crowd as to what made it, and what didn’t but deserved to we high-tailed across town on the promise of a grilled cheese party.

While in previous years, NXNE has mostly been a night-time event, this year saw an increased number of day and afternoon parties, each allowing an opportunity to see acts that you may not see at any other time, and significantly cutting down the clash factor. Until of course, you realise that day parties start clashing with each other, and, other things, like work. No matter, though, because Untold City were providing the grilled cheeses (although sadly the promise of a Gorgonzola Jesus was curtailed by a postal-strike delaying the Jesus toastie maker). Arriving just in time to catch the end of Foxes in Fiction, it wasn’t long before Montreal’s Makeout Videotape took the ‘stage’, replete with faux mexican accents and a pick up band featuring a drummer who had never played with them before.

Underneath the fuzz and the fronting (including an interlude in which the bass players shorts are raised to allow him to flex his calf muscles, and a slewed rendition of Metalica’s ‘Enter Sandman’) theirs is a hook heavy lo-fi rock delivered with a twinkle in the eye and a lounge singers croon from frontman Mac DeMarco. Closing the roof party were RatTail, who, despite some quality rooftop posing (foot on the monitor’s style), seemed to be suffering a few technical hitches with their looping set up. Apparently they weren’t the only ones having technical problems, as halfway through their set, the building maintenance men arrived to fix the buildings air conditioning unit, in the middle of the crowd.

After the raucous rooftop, the mood at The Music Gallery for the Out Of This Spark label showcase was rather more laidback. First up were Snowblink, the duo of MGMT and Broken Social Scene collaborator Daniella Gesundhiet and Dan Goldman, who were joined by yet another Dan, Juno award winning drummer Dan Gaucher (of Fond of Tigers). With her uniquely customised guitar and soaring vocals, the band turned in a captivating performance, the bells the band had distributed to the audience adding an other worldly element to the set. It’s no secret that Evening Hymns’ ‘Spirit Guides’ was a favourite here at Oh! Canada, and it was with nervous anticipation we awaited a set that promised to debut some material from the bands forthcoming album Spectral Dusk.

Bolstered by Gavin Gardiner of The Wooden Sky on guitar and Ohbijou’s James Bunton on drums, Frontman Jonas Bonetta reveled that the new record was inspired by the passing of his father. Apparently The Music Gallery was the first place he went to upon his return, for a Timber Timbre album launch. The combination of the significance of the venue and the playing of Timber Timbre over the PA pre-show clearly contributed to an emotionally charged and powerful performance in front of a packed out crowd. New songs ‘Family Tree’ and ‘You and Jake’ and are slow-burning anthems, growing and swelling, with an underlying sense of menace, while ‘Cabin In The Burn’ finds Bonetta pirouetting and hoping around, controlling feedback and noise swells, crackling with electricity and pent up energy.

Kat Burn’s began Forest City Lovers’ headline set alone at the grand piano, delicately picking out melodies before being joined by the rest of the band for a drummerless run through of their sprightly indie-pop, including The Line of Best Fit faves ‘Tell Me Cancer’ and ‘If I Were a Tree’.

While The Music Gallery was filled with hushed tones, just down the road Yonge Dundas Square was playing host to something a little more in your face. As part of NXNE, Yonge Dundas is home to a series of free shows open to all. Having already missed shows by Metz, Fucked Up and hardcore supergroup OFF! we made it just in time for punk legends The Descendents. With a Greatest Hits set that drew heavily from 1982’s classic ‘Milo Goes To College’ and ‘Everything Sucks’. As ever, the band rattled through their anthems for the geeks that never got the girl- ‘I Am The One’, ‘Bikeage’ and ‘Suburban Home’ all greeted with huge cheers and yelled back with extra by the crowd, while ‘Coffee Mug’ and ‘I Like Food’ bring smiles to all those in attaendence. Part punk rock and part pantomime, halfway through the set, Milo Aukerman brought up the All-O-Gistics rules by which the band operates. Well, that and the golden rule. NO ALL.

With the last notes of ‘Suburban Home’ ringing in our ears, we headed across town to the Silver Dollar room to catch Vancouver’s Chains of Love. With just two 7” and a handful of MP3’s it’s still early days for the band. Taking 50’s and 60’s girl groups as their jump off point, they might not be pushing musical boundaries, but then that isn’t the point. The point is they write catchy as hell soul tunes, fuse them with raw rock’n’roll, soak them in reverb and deliver them with sass and style, making the stage their own, and leaving the crowd calling for more.