By: Dan Keeler

To start with, I was late picking up my pass. Upon getting off the King streetcar (who the hell knows where the Holiday Inn is anyway?), it was about 9:30. I was almost two hours behind schedule already. Of course, such is my custom. I didn’t have a chance of making it to the Silver Dollar in time to see Lipstick Machine, one of the finest acts in the city. So it was said in Now; the Dollar was supposed to be the scene that all the hip kids were swinging to. I decided, after finally getting out of the chaos of reception in the hotel lobby, to streamline the whole thing: first, head to the Boat, then onward to the Supermarket, the Tiger Bar, Sneaky Dee’s and, lastly, the Dollar, where the calibre of the lineup did not fail after Lipstick Machine. I was, of course, even then not prepared for all the complications of such overwhelming extremes brought forth by the festival…

I went to the Boat for Pride Tiger, among others. I was trying to be realistic by this point though, and wanted to move on to the next venue rather quickly while still giving as many bands as possible at least the shadow of a chance. As it happened, this was not especially realistic either; upon rounding the corner of Dundas and Augusta it was plain that the Boat already had a queue extending almost to Bellevue Square Park. Wild! I saw Keith Hamilton―if you’re from Toronto and don’t know who that is, perhaps you ought to find out?―outside and asked if my sneaking in might be at all plausible, but they were already at capacity and most of the people in the line weren’t going to get in either. What a shame. Oh well, on to the Supermarket!

JF Robitaille was ready to finish upon my entrance to the Supermarket. I had the pleasure of just two songs (well, one-and-a-half, really), but the band was somewhat impressive nonetheless. It was not quite stellar, but try imagining Mercury Rev, only louder, yet less spazzy or out of control. I daresay however, it was significantly more conventional. Whether that’s a deterrence though is of course up to the listener. I sped to my next stop, the Tiger Bar, for Gravity Wave and, hopefully, All Purpose Voltage Heroes too. But wait! This, it seems, was not a NXNE show, and neither my pass nor my tight schedule permitted me entry, despite my rather intense passion for those two acts. I was told to return later though, because the alleged “best” act from the Dollar was to make a special (secret) appearance.

It was that fate took me to the notorious Silver Dollar. On stage, the Miles had already begun their set. This was catchy stuff, and the crowd’s attention was firmly fixed on them, and rightly so. I was personally in reverence of their ability to play in a really close formation while still retaining a very fractious quality, which somehow recalled the Faces (although they didn’t sound much like the classics, sonically speaking). What did certainly come through though, was their apparent affinity for contemporary Continental guitar rock, after the fashion as Franz Ferdinand or the Libertines. This may indeed be their only real failing as it’s all really around three or four years old now, and some might say that now is what we need. They did of course get most of the girls (and some guys too) in the place dancing, perhaps as much due to their teenage charm as their, “Look, we’re real live grownups” tie-and-blazer getups. But they were more than enjoyable, so who’s complaining?

Off we shot down College to Sneaky Dee’s. The act we had come for was The Ghost Is Dancing. They were not dancing yet, but they were worth the wait. Somehow they have been placed in a strange place in Toronto’s scene; that of high-energy synth pop, it would seem (maybe it’s all the handclaps?). At one point during their first slow number, there was a piercing burst of feedback, which seemed, strangely enough, to enhance the show in spite of the band. In truth they play a very sweet blend of post-Arcade Fire orchestral folk and what, for now, we’ll call TO dream pop. There’s some Magnetic Fields in there, maybe a little Belle & Sebastian, probably a great deal of Hidden Cameras―they often all hold their hands aloft, thus prompting the audience to do the same―but they have a unique feel about them, which fits alongside a great many acts, but still remains their own. To quote the title track of their latest studio effort, “Living in between the stars… Every time we see the stars, we feel the charge, we feel their light, alright!” We do that is, at least when The Ghost Is Dancing.

I managed to make it back to the Dollar in time for the latter half of The Two Koreas’ set. I’d heard complaints about the sound there earlier, but here’s when it became apparent. Vocalist Stuart Berman’s incredible aural monotony was barely audible, let alone aural. The unrelenting NEU!-wave dance assault squad would not give up though, never! Certainly not while faced with such paltry resistance and such fervent rallying under their standard. They flanked with persistent synth and guitar drones and charged the unseen―and unheard, which was the problem―opposition with all the brilliant determination of a group of many a male and mail-clad Kathleen Hanna, each being called a dyke. They were pretty good okay, but it would have been even better if they had played longer.

Next up were our good mates Cities In Dust. I feel it would be a tad redundant to write much about their music because it has been the topic of much discussion in the past. Suffice it to say, they hail from Hamilton (which, judging by the tunes comin’ outta there, is a pretty freaky place), and they are what real hardcore punk sounds like now. What ought to be said is that the band remains tight and sleek, sometimes against all odds, and frontman Zach Frank is doing a pretty good job at the Iggy Pop game. During their first number, two tables keeled over, sending the bottles of 50 they supported shattered across the ground, covering the floor in broken glass. The second song saw Frank topless. For the third he mounted the bar, fell to the glass-littered ground and was swarmed by photographers before remounting the bar. During the fourth, he ordered a drink, and on the fifth, he stole a drink from an audience member (she was laughing and didn’t seem to mind). This was followed by a fair deal of drunken thrashing, not only on Frank’s part, but among the crowd, as well, and a couple of monitors fell off the stage and onto the floor. This is all sort of standard fare for Cities In Dust, and this time they didn’t break all of the light bulbs in the place. Still, one has to wonder: with all of that damage, could the band be a liability to venues despite the excitement it evokes in fans? Just kidding.

The night came to a close back at Sneaky’s with Wooden Stars. This was a rather sleepy band in comparison with the other performances so far, but part of that may have just been how the night had gotten on. They had a pretty jammy feel, without overly prominent vocals, and a lot of cool, complex picked guitar riffs with strong yet unassuming basslines. A good reference point might be Muse (not Absolutely, though) or Radiohead if they weren’t so intrinsically Britpop, although Wooden Stars are only guitar-bass-drums. What was most immediate, though, was how proggy they felt while still sounding like post-punk. I remember thinking, ‘What if Ian Curtis had been found with Floyd playing on his turntable instead of The Idiot?’ But that’s probably more morbid than necessary. They were just a murky, relaxed band that drew from an unusual array of sources. They were not especially exciting or vibrant, but they were certainly palatable, especially after the hail of noise at the Silver Dollar.

I went back to the Tiger Bar finally, and caught the Miles (again!) finishing up their set. They were the secret act from the Dollar. It was an appropriate end to the mayhem of the first night of the festival; the last song of a set already seen played down the street. I missed a lot of what was on my “bands to see” list in much the same way, and to varying degrees, but when you think about it, maybe that’s what NXNE is all about anyway.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 19th, 2007 at 2:41 am.