Toronto – I went to see Elephant Stone based on the fact that Vik liked them and also because they were named after a Stone Roses tune. The band consists of Rishi Dhir (of the High Dials) and some guys that may or may not be from the Besnard Lakes. Considering their nomination for the Polaris Prize, there might have been all of 50 people in a crowd, which is a shame since they put on a great show. Coming across as a mix between Cornershop and Kula Shakur (according to Patricia), the band played an impressive 45 minute set of what I think sounded like britpop, with eastern influences. This is good drug taking music, I think. There was even a sitar! Anytime you have something like a sitar at a show, it takes it up a notch. The band was also super chilled which suited nicely with the music vibe. I highly recommend you checking them out.
Toronto – One of the more hyped bands to play at NXNE this year, Washington’s Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head rocked the semi packed El Mocambo last night with their take on happy synth pop party music. Having seen Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head a few months back at SXSW, I pretty got what I expected from these synth pop rockers – a really fun show. Say what you want, but after the preening done by Pirate Love, it was nice to see a band that genuinely seemed appreciative of the crowd and enthusiastic to be on stage. One of the greatest things about festivals is that each band really only has 40 minutes to win a crowd over. I would say they have 20 minutes to win the crowd over because if you suck during those first twenty minutes, people will move elsewhere. By the end of the show, NPSH had everyone in the front dancing, arms in the air and having a good time. That is a sign of a good show.
OH yea, about their music..NPSH is just hook filled synth party music. The band comprises of art school hipsters and sing and pseudo rap about topics like facial hair and other things. They dress up in bright colors, sweat bands and basically look like all the 90s fashion mistakes that happened. Kind of reminds me of Saved By The Bell. I don’t know why.
Toronto – Coming off as latter day Primal Scream wannabes, Norway’s Pirate Love played their blend of psychedelic punk rock to a decent crowd on Thursday. I guess they are promoting their album “Black Voudoun Space Blues”. Personally they didn’t do that much for me despite dressing up in costumes (or maybe ponchos and cowboy hates is typical garb for Norwegians). I found the lead singers voice to be too growly at times and he spent a lot of time with his back to the crowd. I do think he has the rock star attitude down, often looking disinterested, sock full of arrogance and having a bedazzled outfit. Having said all that the last two songs weren’t all that bad. I think if someone dressed up as Jack Sparrow, I would have enjoyed their show more.
Pirate Love will be at Neutral on June 20th at 2 Am.
Toronto – I don’t even know where to begin. This show was absolutely insane. There is no way any show at NXNE will top this. Matt and Kim would have to burn down the Whippersnapper and then stab a bunch of 905ers in Little Italy for me to even consider them to be on par. Patrick Wolf was in town for the Nylon tour which also features The Plasiticines, Jaguar Love and Living Things. I will have a review on the Living Things later. As you probably know, Patrick Wolf was touring to promote his very excellent record “The Bachelor“. After the disappointment that was the Passion Pit show last night, I was ready for something good. Well, as most people witness, the show was absolutely ridiculous. Gary pretty much summed up his performance as “a maniacal theater on legs” which is pretty accurate.
It’s pointless trying to explain the show. Highlights were the duel violin battle on “Damaris”, the intense delivery of “Count of Casualty” (where Patrick Wolf asked the crowd “You think thats funny? TEN THOUSAND LIVES! Think of YOUR MOTHER!” ) and many others. I guess it should be noted that he progressively took clothes off during the show. I swear, if he played during pride week I think his record sales would shoot thru the roof.
During the show he was always complaining about the monitor, then about an hour in, he sang “I’m still singing even with these monitors!” then proceeded to throw the microphone stand off the stage and threw a fit and left the stage. It took about fifteen minutes before a stage hand came out apologized to everyone and then the show began. A lot of people left since it was about 12:30 at this time, but when he returned (wearing only a frickin thong) he proceeded to sing his popular tunes which included “Hard Times”, “The Magic Position”, “Accident/Emergency”, “Vulture” and then invaded the crowd for the set ending “Battle”. Some singers invade the crowd and then run back on stage, this guy invaded the crowd and stayed there for the whole time..had everyone jumping up and down and I was personally wondering if the floor was going to cave in.
Nevertheless, everyone who stayed til the end left the show in a “what the fuck just happened” mode. That’s always a sign of a good show. Gary took some photos at the show, some of them are NSFW but check them out here.
