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NXNE 2010: Some good, some not so good

If you’ve ever been to a music festival like NXNE — one with hundreds of bands in action — then you know it’s difficult to catch all the worthwhile performances.  During my short stay in downtown Toronto last weekend, I was able to see some good and not-so-good sets.  Here’s my rundown of each band I saw and some proposed add-ons for your music collection.

Said the Whale

I was really excited for Said the Whale.  It was the first band I saw Friday night at Dundas Square and they definitely met all my expectations. The vocals were impeccable and the indie band had great on-stage chemistry. If you haven’t already listened to their most recent album Islands Disappear, you should. A trip to their MySpace is all it will take to get you hooked.

http://www.myspace.com/saidthewhale

Wavves*

I don’t know what it was. Maybe the fact that I was running on four hours sleep, or that I compared them heavily the act that followed, but Wavves* were not my cup of tea.  Their performance at Lee’s Palace Friday night sounded screechy and the music itself reminds me of the type of cliché noise-punk band that I would have pretended to enjoy in high school. Not to mention, they dragged out their introduction for much too long. When they did finally start to play, I quickly realized their musical and lyrical quality just wasn’t up to par with the rest of the bands I saw.

http://www.myspace.com/wavves

Japandroids

Next on our list was the highly anticipated Japandroids. What blew me away most was how this two-man band managed to make it sound as though there were five members on stage.  All they had was a guitar and a drum kit, but this Vancouver band maintained the crowd’s full attention and they sounded awesome. The mosh pit that formed during their first song was in full force for most of the set.

http://www.myspace.com/japandroids

DD/MM/YYY

These guys are no strangers to NXNE, so, naturally, I was looking forward to hearing them play.  But I wasn’t entirely impressed — actually, I wasn’t even a little bit impressed.  Their mid-day performance on Saturday was mediocre and boring enough to make me ditch the stage and go shopping. Enough said.

http://www.myspace.com/ddmmyyyy

Hot Hot Heat

We dodged the festivities in Little Italy to get to the Mod Club Friday night to see Hot Hot Heat — a band that has perfected the art of performing. You might remember the catchy tracks like “Goodnight Goodnight” and “Middle of Nowhere” off their earlier albums.  Although music of their latest album Future Breeds is not quite as upbeat as previous albums, their main riffs in their new songs like “21@12” are still quite catchy and well-produced. Their performance was highly energetic — even though lead singer Steve Bays admitted to being extremely hungover from the night before. This was definitely my favourite set of the festival.

http://www.myspace.com/hothotheat

Jane Vain

If you are looking for something that has an electric-indie feel to add to your iPod, I’ve found the band for you. This wasn’t one of the bands I originally planned on seeing and to be honest I had never listened to them prior to NXNE, but I was impressed by how good they sounded live. This Montreal-based band interacted with the audience and the lead female vocal was full of angst and defined the term indie rock — without the use of words.

http://www.myspace.com/janevainsmusic

Overall, I was satisfied with my NXNE experience. I was fortunate enough to see some well-formed musical acts, and although I didn’t catch some of the major headliners like K-OS or Iggy and the Stooges, there was no shortage of talent in most of the bands I did see. There was definitely too much to cover in a short amount of time, but, nonetheless, well done NXNE.

Correction: This was changed from “The Wavves.” 07/11/10

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