Friday June 8, 2007
9 pm - The Pantones @ Savannah
A sparse crowd was in attendance to catch Lansing, MI's The Pantones early set. Their country rock was reminiscent of the brighter moments of Son Volt and Wilco with songs at times spotlighting prominent horns and electric piano. They proclaim their sound Americana Indie Pop and actually reminded me a lot of Irish band The Thrills. The Pantones were tight and had a few standout tracks during the set. Musically enjoyable set, but they seemed somewhat redundant as a live act considering they had virtually no stage presence. Maybe if there were more people in the club that might have helped.
10:30 pm - Au Revoir Simone/Favorite Sons/Voxtrot @ Sneaky Dee's
Brooklyn, NY's Au Revoir Simone opened the show for a crowd that had been anxiously waiting in line at least a half an hour or more. Doors were suppose to be at 10 pm but only started to move about half an hour or more. They have an interesting concept - three keyboards and three vocalists. As expected, the female trio blended keyboard arrangements and vocal parts into a lovely pop concoction. Electronic Casio rhythms provided a percussive element to songs like "Sad Song" which were reminiscent to Postal Service. Heather and Erika were the demure(and leggy) ones but the bespectacled Annie was more energetic as she rocked out on her keyboard at times.
Favourite Sons were next. C'mon people they're not that bad(most of the reviews I've read didn't like them). I'm not particularly a fan of lead vocalist Ken Griffin's vocals(sounding sort of like Jeff Martin at times) but some of the rock instrumentation was solid and even creative, and never evolved into wankery. Not my cup of tea, though. Although, you have to give credit to lead vocalist Ken Griffin taking on a heckler with a lingering, confident middle finger as he continued to sing.
Voxtrot. Their first show back last year at the same venue was better. This one seemed rushed. I dunno. My feet were tired although maybe I was just waiting for "The Start of Something" to perk me up(which it did). However, by that point the show was almost over. Hopefully they'll play a larger venue next time. Blacking Out The Friction went to the early show and loved Voxtrot's set.
Saturday June 9, 2007
3 pm - The Diodes @ Yonge Dundas Square
I spent too much time down the street at Sam The Record Man and when I got to Yonge Dundas Square I only managed to catch the last two songs of the set. However, I got to hear "Tired Of Waking Up Tired" live and it sounded fantastic. They even brought up a few of the girls of Toronto's famed female punk act B-Girls to sing backup.
9 pm - Terror Lake @ The Boat
The first time I saw Terror Lake was in June 2006 at Rancho Relaxo. This spunky young Toronto trio are still purveyors of a sound that owes nods to The Pixies, Sonic Youth and Sleater Kinney, with a little surf influence at times thrown in for good measure. Their female drummer also handled vocal duties while the guys thrashed away on guitars(no bass guitar). Wonderfully youthful, if a little loud on the eardrums. I think one of the band members mothers was videotaping the performance for posterity.
10 pm - The Vandelles @ Rancho Relaxo
A stifling hot Rancho Relaxo played host to NYC's The Vandelles. The band is made up of two guys(on lead vocals/guitar &second guitar) and two females(bass guitar/tambourine & drums). Their MySpace lists a variety of influences in their sound but the first item on that list is really all that matters - Jesus and Mary Chain. They sound, more accurately, like early period Jesus and Mary Chain. I'm always up for the JAMC and I thought The Vandelles were terrific but I wonder how far they can go as a band in terms of mainstream(or even indie) success with a sound that's so heavily indebted to another band. We already have The Raveonettes(and even they've diversified their sound). I wish The Vandelles well in the future. The band provides a wrap-up of their NXNE experience over at their MySpace blog.
11 pm - The Coast @ The Boat
Back at The Boat, Toronto's The Coast performed a set that included a bunch of new songs. The new songs are less atmospheric, and spacious which is somewhat of a disappointment since that aspect of their sound was so attractive. An upbeat, more direct pop influence pervades some of the new material and I wonder if Morrissey(whom the bass guitarist was wearing a t-shirt of) was an influence. How the new songs sound on record eventually, well, we'll see. It was a well-received set although considering how small The Boat is, it should have been packed to the rafters. A respectable turnout, nonetheless.
12 pm - waiting in line @ Horseshoe Tavern to see You Say Party! We Say Die!
Didn't get in. Oh well, I tried.
1 am - In-Flight Safety @ Horseshoe Tavern
If Toronto's The Coast had east coast cousins, then they'd definitely be Halifax, NS' In-Flight Saftey. In-Flight Safety perform a similar brand of atmospheric, sensitive rock music but while The Coast take their cues from more classic influences like The Verve, The Smiths and U2, I always thought In-Flight Safety sounded a lot like Coldplay(in a good way). In this world, you'd think one Coldplay is enough, but In-Flight Safety hold their own quite nicely. Holed up in the confines of Horseshoe Tavern, I realized In-Flight Saftey are destined for arenas. Their spacious pop-rock sound, which is carried quite capably by the emotive vocals of the lanky John Mullane), begs for a larger acoustic environment. While a train of people had filed out of the Horseshoe prior to In-Flight Safety's set it appeared that just as many people made it back in for their set. I can only hope that IFS make it to the big time because for the most part Canadian arena-rock right now makes me puke(I won't bother to name the guilty).
Here's a few photos I took this weekend during NXNE(more to come):
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