Concerts

NXNE Review: Pissed Jeans, June 19 ,The Mod Club

Posted on by Brent in North By Northeast | Leave a comment

Pissed Jeans

What the NXNE Press Guide said about Pissed Jeans:

Age and a total of four full-lengths haven’t mellowed Pissed Jeans; they can still unleash a blare that will exfoliate your cochlea. Sometimes they sound like that feeling you’d get if you dipped your arm up to the elbow in a vat of boiling grease. Sometimes they slow down and they sound like when you wake up from a nightmare you can’t quite remember. They are also catchy. Not in a simpering, mewling way that your grandmother might appreciate, but in a way that would appeal to mental patients who only understand colours. 

Pissed Jeans came on stage and singer Matt Korvette sarcastically let the crowd know:

“We’ve actually changed our name so you might want to update that on your blogs. We’re now known as Virgin Mobile Pissed Jeans.”

Their live shows are something to be admired by other amateur acts at NXNE with the frantic pace of a hardcore show led by Korvette’s flailing arms and menacing stage-pacing. Experienced musicians are appreciated after seeing so many newer bands that can’t necessarily command a stage to that of a band like Pissed Jeans. This made for a crowd that was much more receptive than most shows I attended last week. Korvette’s banter also helped:

“You can’t play in front of a Toronto crowd and lie about your dick size. That’s rule number one.” Whatever that means.

And:

“I’m trying this new thing where you eat a burrito before you play. So far, it’s fucking great.”

Some of the more enthusiastic members of the audience were slamming in front for several songs. They were led by a kid wearing a Misfits jacket with way too much energy.

Pissed Jeans lived up to their reputation as an aggressive, fast-paced and experienced hardcore band.

NXNE Review: Tobacco, June 19, Massey Hall

Posted on by Brent in Concerts, North By Northeast | Leave a comment

Tobacco

What the NXNE Press Guide said about Tobacco:

On his third album, 2014’s ‘Ultima II Massage,’ the Pennsylvania snake-synth-charmer deepens his approach to aural depravity. It widens a jagged swath through a weird catalog that already includes collaborations with Beck, subverting pop urges in favour of analog weapons of distortion. It’s difficult and jarring, but also fulfilling and fully realized. You may hear disembodied bits of Boards of Canada, early Def Jam records, and Gary Numan – or maybe just public-access TV and bad VHS dubs of 80’s horror flicks.

Tobacco is Thomas Fec though on this night he was joined by a partner on stage. They were behind a pixelated screen that was quite small for such a large venue like Massey Hall. It displayed various bizarre scenes from what looked to be ’80’s infomercials and B-movies.

Everyone tends to stay in the comfort of their seats at Massey but by the beginning of the third song this all changed.  People live to dance and sometimes it just takes a couple brave souls to get the rest of the party started. Two dudes  slowly made their way to the front and started the dance party and livened the place up.

Tobacco had a hypnotic light show and mixed this with their fast electro beats while incorporating vocal samples that sounded like a robot. It only kind of worked. What they need is a proper venue that’s much smaller and without the seating.

NXNE Review: The Pizza Underground, June 20, Edward Day Gallery

Posted on by Paul in North By Northeast | Leave a comment

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Let me make one thing clear right off the bat: I mostly came for the free pizza.

In town for a few shows at NXNE, The Pizza Underground were playing their third set of the fest, a late morning/early afternoon set at The Edward Day Gallery, one of the main selling points of which was, yes, the free pizza. For those not in the know (though I’m not sure who that would be at this point), The Pizza Underground plays versions of Velvet Underground songs with the lyrics changed to be all about pizza. And they make a ton of bad pizza related jokes during their set. Oh, and that guy from the Home Alone movies is in the band too.  No, not Daniel Stern.

“Now you know what we do. I hope you weren’t expecting more,” said the band a couple of songs into their set.  It’s true, they’ve pretty much just got the one joke, but at least they’re self aware (and self-depricating) enough to acknowledge that they’re a one trick pony.

Having seen the band play once before already, I knew what I was getting into and I knew that the joke wears thin (crust) after a bit. And so, in keeping with the old saying, “there’s no such thing as a free lunch,” there I was, bright and early on a Friday morning to see it all over again. Their jokes may not have changed since I saw the band at SXSW, but their profile has risen a bit thanks to that infamous UK show where the band had pints tossed at them and were booed off the stage by an unimpressed crowd. The band, to their credit, made reference to that incident with a pretty good joke. Singer/pizza box percussionist Phoebe Kreutz commented on how nice it was to be playing a pizza box with a maple leaf on it. “It makes me feel so safe. It’s like when George W. Bush was president and you’d go backpacking through Europe with a maple leaf pin on so people don’t beat you up. We could have used that in England.”

NXNE Review: I Smell Blood, June 19, The Boat

Posted on by Paul in North By Northeast | Leave a comment

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After seeing Pissed Jeans earlier in the evening, I couldn’t resist the idea of keeping the bodily fluids theme going for the night by taking in a set by  I Smell Blood, straight outta London, Ontario.  The name suits the band and their loud, aggressive sound well, evoking the image of an animal ready to strike out at it’s prey. The name also reminds me of an episode of Angel where a character states that blood smells like pennies taste.  Sorry for the geeky digression. 

I Smell Blood follows in the tradition of two piece noisemakers like Lightning Bolt or godheadSilo, though they keep things strictly intrumental.  Playing to a small but appreciative crowd at The Boat. the band ploughed through a few numbers full of rumbling low end riffs and frantic blasting drums. 

It was the perfect way to cap off the night and also the perfect way to keep myself awake at 1am on a Thursday.