Live Review And Photos: NXNE, June 19-21, All Over Toronto
Every year NXNE brings hundreds of bands to almost every venue in Toronto. This is who we covered this year.
For all the NXNE photos clickhere... NXNE Thursday June 18th Language Arts 8pm El Mocambo (Downstairs) Grade: A+ Language Arts may be the most interesting thing I’ve heard in a long time. The four-piece band from Vancouver walked on stage with a double bass, drums, keyboard and nylon string guitar. There are a number of thing that were absolutely amazing about them. Firstly the tone on the guitar may be the most amazing thing I’ve heard in ages, with lead singer and guitarist Kristen Cudmore using a classical guitar better than I ever though possible. Secondly Cudmore’s vocal style was great, fusing folk singing with a hip-hop feel, sounding at times identical to rappers like Busdriver. I got a few words with Kristen who confirmed the Hip-hop influence on her vocals. The rest of the band work insanely well with the double bass giving them a stead drive and the keyboard providing perfect compliment to the leads. Overall it was the best show of the night, unfortunately with such an early start time there were not nearly enough people there to witness the beauty of this band, but that can hardly be blamed on them. - Jay MacDougall Bloodgroup 9pm El Mocambo (Downstairs) Grade: A There really isn’t enough trip-hop out there right now; it is a strange genre that really isn’t that accessible to a lot of people. Yet the Icelandic Trip-hop band Bloodgroup managed to take this obscure genre and make it much more accessible. Playing both straightforward standard trip-hop songs yet at times playing Dance songs with trip hop elements. Overall it created an amazing combination that allowed the genre to be a bit more accessible to the audience who may not have had experience with trip-hop before. The crowd very quickly took kindly to Bloodgroup, whom had most of them dancing only a few songs in. It was an all around fantastic and fun show that left everyone screaming for more. - Jay Black Lips 10pm Dundas Square Grade: A Dundas Square filled up quickly right before the Black Lips took the stage on a black night lit up with synthetic light (Dundas Square is like the daytime all the time). Introducing the show was fat Damien from Fucked Up who asked and perhaps proclaimed to the audience to ‘please, please, please start a fucking riot.’ Surprisingly the Toronto audience did, but it was all fun. And how could you not with Black Lips launching into one of their fan favourites and fastest and dirtiest songs, “Sea Of Blasphemy” as a first song. People rushed the stage and danced with the Lips as the band made sure no fans (hipster, attention seeking girls) was removed by security. A highlight occurred when Lips friend and new recording partner King Khan joined them on stage for one of their new originals and then it was back to business with Joe drumming like an unchained animal and Cole spitting into his own mouth and making out with Ian. - Jackson Main Pirate Love 10pm El Mocambo (Downstairs) Grade: C- Nothing is more painful to watch then a band try so hard and fail so much. Pirate Love hit the stage wearing ponchos and sequence shirts and instantly exclaimed that they were from Norway. They fell into the standard trap of trying to mix so many genres it just fell flat. They played a mix of noise, punk, new wave, and pop that just sounded like a big mess. They were at least having fun on stage so they deserve a little bit of credit but they took themselves way too seriously. They had the potential to be fun, and at some points the crowd seemed to be enjoying themselves but ultimately it was a little too much. - Jay Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head 11pm El Mocambo (Downstairs) Grade: A It’s hard to say what people were expecting when Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head hit the stage, but it is easily said that everyone enjoyed the hell out of it. This dance electro pop group quickly had the entire crowd dancing like high school kids when their parents are out of town. Their sounds were based around heavy synth beats but still had elements of guitar pop or rock at times. They sang songs about anything from beards to dating someone’s daughter to the popular girls in high school. Yet one of the most impressive things was that they were completely aware of what they were; they know they’re gimmicky but it’s exactly what they want to be, therefore completely pulling it off. An all around impressive entertaining and interesting show that left no one unsatisfied. - Jay You Say Party! We Say Die! 12am El Mocambo (Downstairs) Grade: C You Say Party! We Say Die! Played a decent set at 10pm. They didn’t do anything wrong necessarily but there wasn’t anything interesting making the set pretty forgettable. They played both fan favourites and songs from their upcoming album, which were all fine it was just an average, run of the mill set. The crowd defiantly didn’t hate them but they didn’t seem like they were having the time of their life either. There really isn’t much else to say about the show, nothing bad, but nothing great either just an average show that will probably be quickly forgotten. Friday June 19th The Coathangers 9pm Sneaky Dee’s Grade: B The Coathangers did a pretty good job of starting off the night at Sneaky Dee’s. The four-piece Riot Grrl band took quick control of the crowd and played a very solid set. They sounded closer to Atari Teenage Riot than Bikini kill combining more elements of noise then punk. The only complaint was at times they had this feeling of trying really hard to be the in your face punk band, but that is really just nit picking. Overall they played a very solid and enjoyable set. - Jay Bobby Conn and Monica 9pm Lee’s Palace Grade: B A duo of electric guitar (Bobby Conn) and violin (Monica) playing very avante garde music with falsetto singing (again from Bobby) and kept in time with a drum machine. Monica looked like a cartoon character with flowers in here hair and Bobby looked like a mental ward orderly pimp and they went from weird to danceable to 80’s metal to !!!. - Jackson AIDSwolf 10pm Sneaky Dee’s Grade: A AIDSwolf very rarely disappoints, being known for their intense live shows. This was of course no exception, with them going immediately into their great blend of noise and punk. It was barely two songs in before most of the crowd was engulfed into a mosh pit (or trying very hard, and failing to avoid it). Their singer spent a good half of the set in the crowd, often right in the middle of the pit screaming her heart out, leaving to make sure anyone who wasn’t in someway moving quickly started. All eyes were focused on her before long as she continued to the lead the crowd. Music wise it was typical Noise punk, the band made as much noise as fast as they could. Even If you’re not a fan of noise punk the show would have failed to disappoint, leaving everyone there questioning what they just witnessed and why they loved it so much. - Jay Mika Miko 10pm Lee’s Palace Grade: A These girls stole the show playing their stripped down straight up suburban rock/punk but from LA. The sounded a little more polished than Erase Errata and way more hot and dirty than The Donnas and were cool because they were a Hodge podgy of style and their act was having no act. Two lead singers fronted the band and a guitarist and bassist who had their hair in their eyes the entire time blasting out songs of rebellion and turkey sandwiches taking a break only for lead singer Jennifer Clavin to take a turn on guitar (and she fucking rocked). - Jackson Dead Science 11pm Lee’s Palace Grade: B Art scenesters from Seattle were much louder and prouder on stage than their album. Their noise was trippy and ballsy and it had a double bass for added girth but was hard to watch and listen to when you started getting drunk. Or maybe it was easier? - Jackson No Age 12am Lee’s Palace Grade: A Holy shit was this LOUD! No Age is one fantastic band even though they don’t do a lot other than fire their noise punk into the crowd like a cannon but goddamn if you didn’t know the songs off of their full length Nouns you may have been lost since it was blisteringly deafening. But this didn’t matter, because the crowd was packed by this time and in full force with frenzy drinking and body tossing to No Age’s blast of no rules rock! - Jackson King Khan and BBQ 1am Lee’s Palace Grade: B+ The last thing I remember King Khan was sitting cross legged wearing a turban and playing with guitar like a Sitar. Then he terrorized the crowd with this outfit made of luxurious gold mesh and jewels and garage rock. - Jackson 
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