I Heart the Music: Your Online Source for Live Music Reviews and Interviews in Toronto!

The first ever Peace Dot Love music festival took place during NXNE at the Koolhaus. It was a musical tribute to Dylan Ellis and Oliver Martin who were gunned down in a parked car in June 2008, a horrible crime that has yet to be solved. The fest was put on by 102.1 the Edge, D.O. It! (an organization formed to raise funds for youth violence prevention groups), LOVE and Peacebuilders International in partnership with NXNE (as well as some other sponsors, including iheartthemusic).

It began with DJ duo TMDP. Despite their early start time they had the crowd that was there grooving to their tunes. It wasn’t a large crowd, but that didn’t seem to affect the tunes coming off the turntables as these consummate professionals performed with the same energy as when iheartthemusic witnessed them spin to an at-capacity Circa crew. (If you missed them you can see them at the TIME Festival at Sound Academy on July 25.)

Stereos were met with a plethora of pre-pubescent screams from the throngs of teenyboppers who rushed the stage. Personally I thought it sounded like watered down radio dribble with too much auto-tune. However, I also think the latest album from Black Eyed Peas had too much auto-tune and Stereo’s song “Summer Girl” was number one on iTunes so they mustn’t be doing much wrong (but I’d be hard pressed to pick out what they were doing exceptionally right). In any case, the PG-13 prepubescent portion of the Koolhaus seemed to dig it as they screamed and sang along to every song, including “She Only Likes Me When I’m Drunk” (love the title). Perhaps it’s just a matter of taste… or lack thereof.

Feeling Stereo-ed out, I popped through the rabbit hole into the side room where I discovered a polar bear playing bass, an Elton John-looking lead singer and a percussion apparatus that resembled a mix between Dick Van Dyke’s instrumental outfit in Mary Poppins and a medieval torture contraption. The band sounded like a lot of fun… unfortunately no one was able to tell me who they were (if you’re reading this and you know the answer, let us know).

True to form Down With Webster gave a high-octane performance. This large ensemble band is an amalgamation of high energy electro with large doses of rap and rock. One of the highlights was the when the drummer had a fun video game soundtrack solo (the low light was when one of the silly members threw beer on our photographer, not cool dude!). Even when they experienced some technical difficulties they kept the crowd entertained by busting out a freestyle. And they were entertaining, I even spotted some parents grooving to their tunes.

Simultaneously We Are the Take had a work out on the stage next door. These boys played so hard they were quite literally dripping with sweat. The passion in playing engaged the crowd who seemed fully immersed (or should I say “taken in”) by the band. These guys always put on a good show and are clearly garnering a devout fan following.

Dragonette was nothing less than awesome. iheartthemusic had the pleasure of speaking to the husband and wife team before the show and learned that they were truly there to support the cause, which they spoke very well of [stay tuned for that interview, we talked music, fashion and spilling sauce on sneakers in Japan... apparently a no-no as it takes a while for the smell to go away]. Their performance was dynamic and a highlight for many of the festival goers. One word: awesome!

Closing out the night was USS (Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker). Phew, if you weren’t tired already you would have been by just watching these two guys fly around stage, doing handstands and bouncing with the crowd. Lots of energy and a wonderful way to end a wonderful festival. With so many great performances I look forward to see how they top this next year.

Written by Emer Schlosser

Photography by Carl Heindl

Sunday, traditionally the day of rest, but there is no rest of the wicked during NXNE. Fantastic photographer Joyce and I managed to hang in there for one last night of musical merriment.

First stop of the night was the Rivoli for Rueben deGroot. Don’t let this cowboy-hatted hottie fool you, he ain’t just country. DeRoot infused his tines with elements of folk and jazz to create music that most country nay Sayers could enjoy. In fact, this Kingstonian supposedly likes to describe his sound as “swamp-swing”, a name I quite enjoy and think expresses the sense of toe-tapping fun. If this sounds like this might be your cup of tea (or your looking for a way to transition into liking country), check out deGroot when he returns to Toronto on July 24 to play at the TRANZAC.

Next up at the Rivoli were The Gertrudes. And goodness gracious they were ginormous! In fact, they barely all fit on stage. I couldn’t count them all, but according to their MySpace there are a dozen. It wasn’t just the magnitude of the members, but the instruments they trucked up with them that was interesting. In addition to the usual suspects (like guitbox, sticks and violining) I spotted a banjo (or banjer), accordion (squeeze box), and ukulele (ukalucas). When The Gertrudes initially took to the stage the sounds that emanated were not at all what I was expecting. I had in my head barn dancin’, foot stompin’ hootenanny fair. Instead it was atmospheric indie folk. Very cool. Then, as the set progressed, more of that country-dance vibe I was expecting filtered in. There was a real sense of fun as the large familia seemed to enjoy the show as much as their audience.

Joyce and I then took leave of the Rivoli to venture up to the El Mocambo for what we expected to be Oh No Not Stereo, a pop rock band from Hollywood. However, that was not what we got. Not even close. Instead we walked into The Hank and Lily Show. How to describe the experience that was Hank and Lily? I think goth rock would best describe the genre. I believe the name of the song which we walked in on was aptly titled “Don’t Be Afraid”… and we tried not to be even though it sounded like the soundtrack to a B straight to video slasher flick, which was appropriate considering the costumes. The woman I assume to be Lily was a blonde wearing horn-like antlers who played the saw while the man I assume to be Hank looked like he fell out of a dark western remake of My Bloody Valentine. However, there was a positive note among all the shrieking ones, they had a song about David Hasselhoff, and I do love the Hoffmeister!

With the ringing still in our ears from Hank and Lily’s piercing wails, Joyce and I jumped over to Rancho Relaxo where our auditory vessels were comforted by the sweet sounds of Dan Griffin. Not only was the change of decibel refreshing, but so was seeing the simplicity of an acoustic set. It was interesting because earlier in the evening Joyce and I discussed what a rarity is seems to see a solo show these days when there seem to be so many massive groups a la Broken Social Scene and the like. But I digress and return to the musician at hand, Dan Griffin. He had a smooth and mesmerizing voice that was super easy to listen to and sang lyrics you could not only hear but really listen to. There was once exception and that was when he struggled through the Tokyo Police Club cover “Nature of the Experience.” However, he was humble about the stumble and was ultimately saved by stage manager Cam and his handy iPhone (and if you want to hear him get through the song without any trouble check out his MySpace).

Concluding the 2009 NXNE experience for Joyce and myself was the Toronto-based band bellewoods. A full sounding indie rock band that infused folk and had soul. There was a nice robustness to their music and I enjoyed that it was occasionally accented with church organ sound. The lead singer has a great voice and if you followed it on some of the slower tracks you felt like you could fall right into the song (…or perhaps that was the fatigue… or beer…). Despite it being a Sunday night after almost a week of music and extended last calls there was quite a crowd drawn out to see bellewoods, and rightly so. They had a good solid sound and clearly have potential.

And that was that. Another year, another group of musicians to add to the roster to follow and another NXNE in the bag.

Words by Emer Schlosser

Photographs by Joyce Wong

NXNE began with a great start on Wednesday night for those who attended the Arts&Crafts evening and packed The Courthouse. The indie uniformed were in attendance (plaid shirts: check, skinny jeans: check, thick framed glasses and mustaches galore: check check) along with the who’s who of Toronto’s indie scene. While many opening night parties are equal parts music and mingling, this one focused more on the former, as the sign posted on the doors explained:

“This is not a rock show. If you are here to talk about your job, your relationship or your current state of mind while the bands are playing, please leave now and give your spot to someone who cares about the music. Thank you and we hope you enjoy the evening.”

In addition to being the kick-off night for NXNE, the event was in honour of This is Broken: A Broken Social Scene Story by Stuart Berman, which was published by House of Anansi Press in May of this year.

Fans of Broken Social Scene and their spin-offs were certainly in for quite the treat. BSS guitarist Charles Spearin’s Happiness Project was an interesting amalgamation of interviews chopped up and looped in and around melodies. While sometimes sounding ambient and experimental, the brass added a big band feel at times.

Next up was BSS guitarist Andrew Whitmena’s Apostle of Hustle (Whiteman is the current cover boy of Exclaim! magazine, one of the sponsors of the evening). Can I just say, “wow, holy energy Batman.” These boys rocked out hard and displayed a range of both tempo and style (personally I loved the Spanish song!).

Closing out the night were Broken Social Scene. (Note that this meant Apostle of Hustle played back-to-back sets). And when I say Broken Social Scene, it was both past and present members of the ever-changing music collective. Leslie Feist popped in and out of numerous songs, as did Jason Collett (who apparently opened the show… unfortunately we missed his set). The band played a mixture of old favourites and new songs that they said they were playing live for the first time.

After doing a few “just one more” songs they were brought back for an encore. Then Two Koreas, whose lead singer Stuart Berman was hosting the evening (and in case you skipped the first bit of this article, he’s also the author of This is Broken), played a tune with Kevin Drew jumping in on guitar. But there was no way a night dedicated to BSS could end on any note other than BSS. So everyone was brought back to the stage yet again for a final song that had one of the longest and most fun extended endings I’d ever had the pleasure of hearing.

The exorbitant energy emitting from the stage throughout the entire evening was staggering. If you didn’t love these bands before, there’s no way you wouldn’t be converted after experiencing this show. In fact, I even overheard people referring to the evening as a “religious experience.”

review by Emer Schlosser

photography by Joyce Wong