Toronto – This is another year of Toronto’s infamous music festival, North By Northeast. While I won’t proclaim be the super veteran of this festival or anything, I am approaching the age of 30, thus making me a veteran of life. Here are my top 10 tips on making the NXNE the most enjoyable experience possible. These ten aren’t in any order, as I am doing this on the fly and I don’t even know what #1 is as of this sentence.
10. Know thy venues
If you live in Toronto, chances are you already know where Horseshoe Tavern and Lee’s Palace is. Do you know where the Painted Lady is? Rearview Mirror? The Piston? if not, it’s time to get yourself familiarized with all the venues you plan to hit up and any surrounding backup venues in case the place you want to go is full. Also, know approximately how far one place is to the next, and whats the quickest non-bike way to get there. Never trust streetcars.
9. Know thy food
It is inevitable that you will get hungry at some point during the night, it’s always a good idea to know where you can grab a quick, yet satisfying bite (Poutine). Nothing would suck more then having to go to a subway or something mid-NXNE and eat something like that.
8. Know thy water
As much as you would like to start drinking on Wednesday night at 7 and then continue til the end of the festival, we all know you aren’t going to last. Stay hydrated and switch between alcohol and water. Your next morning self will thank you for it.
7. Know thy beer
Having said that, we all know some bars serve shitty Molson/Labatt type beers. So instead of spending 7 bucks on low quality brew, just wait until the next place you go to and spend it on some quality microbrewery beers.
6. Know thy schedule
You should have backup plans upon backup plans when going to see a show at NXNE. You should also know what bands that you ABSOLUTELY have to see. So if you miss Best Coast on Thursday, know that they play on Friday and don’t throw a hissy fit on twitter or post on fml. It’s not that bad. Just plan accordingly, with nice diagrams, then post it on facebook and tell me about it because I don’t have any plans on my own.
5. Know thy unofficial schedule
Did you know there are some bbqs happening at Trinity Bellwoods every day featuring NXNE bands? How about the one on the island on Sunday afternoon? There are a lot of unoffical showcases going on during this week that are totally free and worth your effort to investigate.
4. skipping this one
Asians don’t deal with the number 4, since it translates to ‘death’ in Chinese. Next.
3. Know thy unknown
If I had told you about the Arcade Fire eight years ago, you probably would not have checked them out (“but..the bravery is playing!” you would say) However, if you had a Delorean, you would absolutely go back in time to check them out before buying a lot of lottery tickets and stocks (and would you go further back in time and kill Hitler? or just let things be..hmm). What I am saying is, make some time to see some random bands, maybe even based on band names or other items. I got the Empire of the Sun album based on their album cover a few years ago, and I am a better man for it.
2. Know thy people
You should probably know that any of the really popular acts playing this festival – Zeus, Best Coast,, Surfer Blood, etc will probably sell out and have lineups outside well before their slated showcase times. So if you try to get in 5 minutes before they go on and are discouraged about the amount of people in line, don’t tweet about how “there’s too many people at nxne now” because, realistically, you are just a dumb ass.
1. Know it’s fun
No matter what happens, know that NXNE is fun and don’t worry about what is potentially going on at some other venue when you are at a show. Not many cities get this type of awesome music festival where you can potentially stumble into any bar and catch the next Broken Social Scene. Just appreciate whatever band you are seeing and see where the night takes you.
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