North By Northeast NXNE 2012 – June 16 Concert Recap

 
DON’T MISS OUR COVERAGE OF JUNE 13 2012 HERE, JUNE 14 2012 HERE, AND JUNE 15 2012 HERE.

June 17 2012 – North By Northeast (NXNE) took over Toronto’s bars and clubs last night for a fourth 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 and hope you can catch them next time they play. There were simply way too many other bands to see so a bit of research is needed to make sure you saw 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.

While all the bigger and more important media sites were crowding around Yonge and Dundas Square to cover The Flaming Lips, we used our time on Saturday night to provide grassroots coverage to 12 bands at the bars and clubs of downtown Toronto. We saw 13 bands on the first day, 14 on the second, 12 on the third and with tonight’s haul we saw 51 bands over 4 days!We are certain real fans of NXNE appreciate our Herculean effort to cover as many indie and unsigned bands as possible, and we hope to be your one stop shop for NXNE 2013. Here is how the night went for us:

9 pm – Platinum Blonde at The Mod Club.  The band’s NXNE bio page reads: “Poppy Toronto new wave survivors who have hopefully retained their glam rock wardrobe from the late eighties.” Anyone who was a teenager in the late 80’s/early 90’s in Toronto would recognize Platinum Blonde as the new wave band was huge with a string of hits during that time frame. Tonight’s show was a come back show of sorts as Platinum Blonde played NXNE in support of their new record. Read our full review of this show here.

Platinum Blonde at NXNE 2012

9 pm – Poor Young Things at The Legendary Horseshoe. The band’s NXNE bio page reads: “Blue collar and bar room rock and roll with widescreen Tom Petty meets Powderfinger choruses, driving rhythms and a rough and ready approach.” The Horseshoe was the place to be early on a Saturday night where PYT proved they are a great rock band to a capacity crowd (their album is produced by Jon Drew, the same producer that is working TimeGiant’s upcoming record).

Poor Young Things at NXNE 2012

10 pm (Secret Guest) at The Legendary Horseshoe was Vancouver’s Yukon Blonde. It was fun to see these talented guys play live. Highlight was their mega-hit Stairway which is on the radio every hour and every Blue Jay broadcast between each half inning.

Yukon Blonde at NXNE 2012

11pm at The Rivoli brought Sara Johnston. The band’s NXNE bio page reads: “Ex-Bran Van 3000 Johnston’s solo project ignores frat-pop for a more soulful and sweet approach, her lush voice sitting over buzzsaw guitars and stadium sized drums.” Sara delivered a soft set pleased the people that came to see her.

Sara Johnston at NXNE 2012

11 pm at our unofficial HQ of NXNE 2012 The Hideout was Black Wing Halo. The band’s NXNE bio page reads: “New York psycho-surf-grunge four piece who give the impression of kids rummaging through the finest musical dumpsters to recycle, solder and stitch themselves a new many elemental music”. It was unfortunate that the crowd was sparse for this really good band with raw energy.

Black Wing Halo at NXNE 2012

11 pm at The Velvet Underground we saw Ain’t No Love, very entertaining, very enthusiastic crowd. The band’s NXNE bio page reads: “Straight-up contemporary urban-pop quartet from Montreal but – hooky, bassy and perfectly produced – far superior to even the best club fodder. Championing their recent self titled album.” This band was the only non Rock act we saw, but we really enjoyed them just like everyone else there. It was a great party atmosphere. Everyone was having a blast. Music is all about having fun and Ain’t No Love certainly succeeded on that score.

Ain’t No Love at NXNE 2012

The midnight witching hour brought Little Foot Long Foot at The Bovine. The band’s NXNE bio page reads: “Toronto based country-tinged, bluesy rock-with-bite, toe tapping, feet stamping, dance party. A howling cave-rock stomping live show.”

Our Senior Editor, Steve Mallinson is a huge fan of this band so we thought we would let him give his personal review of this set. Steve said “Little Foot Long Foot wasn’t just the highlight of Saturday night, it was, for me, the highlight of NXNE. Having just been introduced to LFLF only a week before this show, I’d already played their cd “Oh, Hell” more than a dozen times. This band has heavy riffs and power chords, a great crunchy guitar tone, a maniacal drummer, creative melodies and psychedelic organ sounds. There’s no bassist but the bass isn’t missed. If anything it enhances the individual instruments. This is a distinctive band led by the powerful vocals of a petit Joan Smith. They’re not to be missed. They’re quickly becoming one of my favourite bands since Led Zeppelin and Isaac Klein absolutely IS my favourite drummer since John Bonham”

Little Foot Long Foot at NXNE 2012

12 am – Holly McNarland at The Rivoli. Her NXNE bio page reads: “Since the release of her debut album in 1995, Holly McNarland has released one critically acclaimed album after another. This Juno Award-winnIng singer-songwriter is known for her unflinching lyrics, lingering melodies, and a powerhouse voice.” Folksy set that delivered exactly what Holly’s fans wanted to hear.

Holly McNarland at NXNE 2012

1am – Shawn Brady and the Electric Blood at The Hideout. The band’s NXNE bio page reads: “Brady and his band have performed in 14 countries and are known for putting on high energy rock shows that inspire and engage the audience. Their songs connect with big ideas underneath a soaring soundscape. Think U2 with a shot of adrenaline! Loud guitars, drums and memorable melodies.” Very fitting description and The Hideout was rocking and rocking loud. Great set!

Shawn Brady and the Electric Blood at NXNE 2012

2am – back to The Hideout for A Primitive Evolution. The band’s NXNE bio page reads: “From their roots in Toronto’s underground rock scene to their unrivaled, uninhibited stage show, this band takes hard rock and grunge and pumps groove and sex back into it. Featuring members of Lye, Playdead Cult, and Darkside.” APE is a great band that really does know how to entertain its audience.

A Primitive Evolution at NXNE 2012

2am – The Horseshoe had the Fast Romantics whom we interviewed here. The band’s NXNE bio page reads: “Arcade Fire may be a lazy comparison for these Toronto indie-rockers, but they do have a similarly huge sound and a quintessentially Canadian artsy crossover vibe.” These pop rockers didn’t disappoint. The highlight was when they closed with a cover of Blur’s “Girls and Boys” and the Horseshoe suddenly exploded – or at least it seemed to as the entire crowd erupted into spontaneous hopping.

Fast Romantics at NXNE 2012

3am – Mad Ones at The Horseshoe. The band’s NXNE bio page reads: “Pitching themselves clearly at the anthemic alt-rock side of throw-back grunge, this power trio aren’t afraid to try their hand at J Mascis sized guitar riffs and Evan Dando pitched vocals and see how they match up.” This is a hard rock duo (or at least were tonight) of guitar and drums that closed off our NXNE 2012.

Mad Ones at NXNE 2012 Verdict: Tonight we saw 12 more bands to make our final tally for NXNE 2012 a remarkable 51 bands. Tonight we saw a variety of acts but just for fun  here are our mentions for “gig of the night” from the T-Mak World NXNE team. Steve: Little Foot Long Foot is my “gig of the night”. Scroll up to view my full thoughts but I had this to say “They’re quickly becoming one of my favourite bands since Led Zeppelin” John: Platinum Blonde was my gig of the night as it transported me back to the 80’s Terry: I had to miss tonight’s fun so no “gig of the night” for me. Reviews: John Dash and Steve Mallinson | Photos: Micheal Litt and Steve Mallinson

Author: T-Mak