Toronto – Ah. When the wind blows north from Austin every summer, we look to North by Northeast to showcase Canadian and international bands. Since 2001, NXNE has also added a film element. I have never been a big fan of music related films. The reason is simple – even though they are complementary media, there’s always a compromise one takes backseat to the other. I am, however, looking forward to seeing SUCK: the movie. This is reminescent of Dancing with the stars – famous people are casted in a vampire band film. Even though there’s nothing original about it, it promises to at least be fun to watch. Don Letts has two films in NXNE, Carnival! and Strummerville, that I will also check out. I’m not a most excellently connected person, so I’ll be checking out several of the bands that I missed at SXSW: Surfer Blood and Besnard Lakes, for instance. There is that secret Arcade Fire show that I haven’t heard much about since. As the festival happens, I will post the nightly exploits from one venue (which seems to be the most economical thing to do per last year’s experience). What I really want to do this year, however, is to find that Sketchy stuffed rabbit (or any of the others), and if not get one at least take a picture of it. The silhouette of stuffed animals has become a visual theme of NXNE (something that SXSW doesn’t have) and would be a cool souvenir. I guess there’s still some asian in me…
FILM
Suck: June 18th, 9:45PM @ Bloor Cinema
Carnival!: June 16th, 7:30PM @ NFB
Strummerville: June 19th, 6:30PM @ Toronto Underground Cinema
BAND
Surfer Blood: June 19th, 6PM @ Yonge-Dundas (but of course I won’t be there…)
Besnard Lakes: June 17th, 9PM @ Mod Club
