North By Northeast NXNE 2012 – June 13 Concert Recap

NXNE headquarters at The Hyatt Hotel in Toronto

June 13 2012 – North By Northeast (NXNE) took over Toronto’s bars and clubs last night with a full slate of musical options. NXNE is in it’s 18th year and features 780 bands and 40 movies over 7 days.

Our coverage of NXNE began with Emerging Artist Spotlight interviews with:

These are all bands we strongly endorse. There are simply way too many other bands to see so a bit of research is needed to make sure you see the bands that suit your taste. We published a handy guide of our picks here in a simple to use .pdf document that can be printed and carried along as you bar hop.

8pm – Avery Island kicked it all off for us at a very crowded Painted Lady on Ossington. A very beautiful start to our night with Lauren Heenan leading us on melodic journey of synthy pop. Very nice start to NXNE indeed!

Avery Island at NXNE 2012

9pm – Next up were The Aves – again at The Painted Lady. This band is from Australia and have a very clear Brit new wave influence (Smiths, Cure). They gave a very solid performance and were clearly connecting with the audience.

9 pm – We ran off to The Horseshoe to see Steve Hill (from Montreal), who one upped (or should I say downsized) The Black Keys and delivered stomping blues all on his own. He used all four appendages – right foot on cymbal, left foot on Bass drum. He impressed us by delivering even some Robert Johnson dirty south blues material. The grimy and worn down Horseshoe was the absolute perfect venue for Steve.

Steve Hill at NXNE 2012

10 pm – We stayed at The Horseshoe to check out July Talk.They had the largest crowd we saw tonight and justifiably so. Their theatrical set was something reminiscent of the B-52’s in the 80’s. The description on their NXNE bio is absolutely spot on “July Talk’s frontman Peter Dreimanis has the voice of a young Tom Waits and frontwoman Leah Fay has that same sexy swagger and confidence of Karen O. Together, they make antagonising the Kills-style, sexy as hell indie-rock.” Although not exactly our usual taste of musical style this was an excellent gig that we thoroughly enjoyed. That is the beauty of NXNE – exposure to new and refreshing music! Kudos.

July Talk

10 pm – We spent most of our night on Queen Street West hopping between the various bars there and The Hideout turned out to be our unofficial central meeting spot. We walked in as group out of Kingston named Vorasek were playing their set. Their bio on the NXNE page describe them as “pop rock” a category I generally dislike. This band is definitely not pop rock but classic rock, or even anthem rock. Part Foo Fighters, part Tragically Hip, part Led Zeppelin. This is the music that T-Mak World is created for. Welcome to our radar Vorasek, you have our ears. We liked the band so much in fact we will be featuring them on our Emerging Artist Spotlight interview series in the next few days.

Vorasek – NXNE 2012 at The Hideout

11 pm – The One-Look Donnybrook was next at The Hideout and their description on the bio page is right on. “Brought together by a profound respect and appreciation for rhythm driven rock, grunge, blues and an insatiable desire to make music, booze, bicker and rage, this four piece have cultivated a sound and a swagger unto themselves.”

One-Look Donnybrook at NXNE 2012

11 pm – A quick stop at The Velvet Underground brought us to see The Parkdale Hookers. Very interesting back story as “The only NXNE band profiled on The Star Business Section front page, this trio of corporate, well-dressed mods kick-out high energy power-pop punk resulting in high ROI at every show. Nice suits – loud punks.”

The Parkdale Hookers at NXNE 2012

11 pm – Over to The Bovine to catch a bit of The Rabid Whole. First thing you will notice is they are clad in leather and loud. Vocalist Andreas Weiss reminds me alot of Judas Priests’ Rob Halford in his on stage movements. This is not just a heavy metal band though, the inclusion of synthesizers gives them an electro-industrial touch that is both unique and refreshingly familiar. Definitely the most energetic performance of the night and the crowd at The Bovine were having a good rocking time.

The Rabid Whole – NXNE 2012

12 am – As Midnight strikes we have learned through the @nxneFest Twitter account that the secret show at The Cameron House is The Balconies so back down Queen Street we go to catch this band which is getting alot of hype these days. We enter the back room to see a stripped down stage and to our delight this is an acoustic set consisting of just violin, cello and (acoustic) guitar. Much like MTV unplugged we are treated to a re-rendition of the band’s songs with a softer interpretation. Really cool set to see, and a real shame for anyone that isn’t following @nxnefest.

The Balconies secret acoustic set at NXNE 2012

12 am – Back to The Hideout to see a bit of Ponctuation from Quebec. This duo kept the spirit of Canada life with bi-lingual lyrics in both English and French. The band had the most people dancing on the night as their sound really attracted the Queen St. crowd. Fuzzy, raw and almost psychedelic this duo put on a great show.

Ponctuation at NXNE 2012

1 am – One of our favorite bands here at T-Mak World are Wise, Young & King (took us forever to memorize that name but we got it now!) We interviewed the band a few months ago here. Power rock, with Myles Bell belting out massive guitar riffs and solos at every chance. Vocalist Alan Charlton has the biggest rock star voice we have heard not just in NXNE but in a very long time. His pipes are very reminiscent of The Cult’s Ian Astbury (who incidentally we interviewed as well here). Very loud and very polished, these guys should be playing their kick ass tune Federales in stadiums!

1 am – We had 5 “must see” shows in our NXNE Preview article and the first one on our list was Bella Clava, so we had to leave Wise, Young & King and run a block west to see them at The Bovine. Grungey Blues heavily infused with old school synthesizers and heavy guitar riffs. {Ed Note. Steve said you cant go wrong if you see a Les Paul on stage} We have no idea what a Clava is, but this band sure is Bella. Interrupting their set to have a shot offered to all the members of the band from someone in the audience, they really rocked the Bovine hard and had the audience shaking their heads and rocking out.

Bella Clava – Steve’s “Gig of the Night” mention for Wed June 13 2012 at NXNE

1 am – One last quick stop at The Velvet Undeground to catch a song from The Scarlet Fever. “Glammed-up singer and keyboard player in a gas mask add theatrics to this Bauhaus, Bowie and Roxy Music quintet, who deliver a pounding assault of classic punk and dark rock” is what their bio reads on the NXNE page.

The Scarlet Fever

Whew. 13 bands in one night but that is the beauty and the fun of NXNE. We spent most of our night on the Queen St. West strip bar hopping in and out of The Cameron House, The Hideout, The Velvet Underground, and The Bovine Sex Club (all within 5 minutes walking distance between them).

Verdict: All the bands we saw were great and depending on your musical tastes you would have found something you loved for sure. Our standout gigs of the night are:

John: July Talk was my most memorable gig of the night and thus my pick for “gig of the night”. They offered up a musical mash-up with frontwoman Leah Fay Goldstein channeling Belinda Carlisle overlayed with front man Peter Dreimanis {Ed. note – Go Greece!) carving out his Tom Waits stylings. What develops are performance art pieces that work and work well.

Steve: Bella Clava really rocked and was exactly the style of music I wanted to hear. Great energy and great crowd interaction. They are my “gig of the night” with honorable mention to the very rocking Wise, Young & King.

Terry: Wise, Young & King are one of my favorite indie bands and they delivered the goods yet again. However I was also very impressed by the young rockers of Vorasek. For the first time ever my “gig of the night” is a tie between these two bands from Ottawa and Kingston respectively. Well done guys!

Vorasek – co-winner of “Gig of the Night” for NXNE on Wed. June 13 2012

Wise, Young & King – co-winner of “Gig of the Night” for NXNE on Wed. June 13 2012

Author: T-Mak

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