NXNE Review: Killer Mike, June 16, Wrongbar

Posted on June 20, 2012 by Brent in Everything, North By Northeast | Leave a comment

What better way to get across from College and Spadina to the west end to catch Killer Mike at Wrongbar on a beautiful Saturday night but to walk. I left around 12:40am and speed-walked about forty-minutes and you’ll not believe the bizarre things you see at this time. But since it wasn’t part of the entertainment and I’ve lived in cities for most of my life, I’ve become desensitized to this stuff. Regardless, thanks to Rival Schools playing a longer set than normal, I made it on time and it was definitely worth it. Of the twenty plus artists/bands/groups/clowns I saw since Wednesday, Killer Mike was the highlight. Not only was it a highlight, but while looking for my sacred pass that I dropped at the bar, I found a fiver. Bonus beer.

The show started around 1:30am and everyone outside soon came in and pushed up to the stage. Rap music and the white kids loving it. The hipster girls starting to grind up against one another making sure to not spill their $7.25 tallboys of Labatt 50 (I swear) on one another. Based out of Atlanta, Killer Mike found fame through his ties with Outkast back in 2000 on their album Stankonia. My first experience was hearing “That’s Life” in 2008 off his I Pledge Allegiance to the Grind, which basically says that if you don’t like what he’s saying, then then don’t listen. Idiots. He was there promoting his new release R.A.P. Music and the controversial new video to “Big Beast,” which is a nine-minute convenience store robbery/car chase with a bit of zombie apocalypse theme going on that features T.I., Bun B, and Trouble. On stage though,Killer Mike is more of a loveable cuddly teddy bear though. Way less threatening than so many other popular hip hop artists out there these days. After the first couple songs he said, “I see security looking a little uptight. A big black with so many beautiful drunk white people.” I heard this from where I was as “beautiful CHALK white people” which is way more racist and way funnier but I’m guessing he said the former.

His crowd favourite, “Reagan” started off with another story about his mother, who he made sure we knew was both a “convicted drug trafficker and college graduate,” and even though she’s still a mother who calls her son “Michael,” she still lets her opinion be known that Ronald Reagan didn’t just set progress back with his war on drugs and his conservative economic policies, he caused more of a divide between working class black communities and white America. “Fuck Ronald Reagan” indeed. Killer Mike had the crowd fromthe time he stepped on stage and even let them know how much he appreciated playing in Toronto and may have even said that this was his best show ever.

NXNE Review: Limblifter, June 16, El Mocambo

Posted on June 20, 2012 by Brent in Everything, North By Northeast | Leave a comment


After taking in the crowds at Yonge Dundas, some more crowds watching an empty MMVA stage,and a couple other bands, I made my way to the El Mocambo to catch old skool alt-rockers Limblifter at midnight. You remember “Tinfoil” right? Yeah, you do. Hearing that song wasn’t the highlight of their set though, the highlight was me sitting along the wall at the side of the stage waiting for them to go on stage when beside the poor girl who was a NXNE volunteer given the responsibility of making sure no one went back there. Well this one guy wasn’t having it. He made a bee-line and ploughed straight through but that lasted about five feet when he tripped over face first and landed on one of those hard guitar cases. He just laid there for a good ten seconds or so while everyone within viewing distance processed what had just happened and then we were able to look at each other and acknowledge we all just saw that. Classic.

Oh, and then Limblifter played. They were good too. The Dahle brothers formed this as a side-project while in Age of Electric but drummer Ryan left to join The New Pornographers. The El Mo was at capacity and it was probably the oldest crowd I encountered during the festival. They didn’t miss a beat though and sounded as good as when I remember them as a teenager.

NXNE Review: Young Liars, June 16, The Painted Lady

Posted on June 20, 2012 by lauren in Everything, North By Northeast | Leave a comment

Young Liars

So it’s midnight Saturday night, I’m wiped out already (yea, I’m an old lady inside so what), but there’s still so much to see. Having heard a song by Young Liars, I thought it was definitely worth checking out as it would bring the dance. Bring the dance it did. First time in Toronto, (second showcase for NXNE) Young Liars are a 4 piece dance-rock band from Vancouver. We hit the venue just as they were setting up and made our way to the front. I don’t know if you’ve been to the Painted Lady, but it’s like every other bar on Ossington, long and narrow. How they packed this in for shows, I’ll never know, but loved the intimacy of the space, and the lighting. It made you feel as if you were in your parents basement hosting a secret dance party.

Young Liars played hard, and made us all dance up a storm. Much like Phoenix and a bit Cut Copy-ish, there’s nothing better than seeing people playing actual instruments and still making  you dance. Not hating on the electronic music genre, I love it too, but watching a dude/dudette wail on a guitar while getting all sweaty on the dance floor makes the experience seem much more authentic. Can’t pick just one, but the stand out songs were definitely “Colours,” “Echoists,” and “6/4”. Based on their talent and great live set, I would expect to see these guys touring around the area much more often. Hit them up next time they’re here and dance your fucking feet off.

 

NXNE Review: Flaming Lips, The Deer Tracks, Life In Vacuum, June 16 (Yonge Dundas Square; Rivoli, Detour Bar)

Posted on June 19, 2012 by Brent in Everything, North By Northeast | 1 Comment


It seemed that everyone’s plans changed Saturday night following the stage collapse at Downsview Park that resulted in Radiohead’s drumtech dying and several others being injured. So many other options for a Saturday night were at their fingertips, most notably Luminato and the NXNE shows that started earlier in the day at Yonge-Dundas Square.I arrived and caught the end of the of Montreal set. This was when I met up with several friends as well as several thousand strangers which made it slightly uncomfortable and at times claustrophobic. As well, it didn’t help that the Flaming Lips set started a half-hour late. I’m getting old. Balloons, confetti, ten-minute drawn out versions of crowd favourites, but a nice tribute/cover of Radiohead’s”Knives Out” though. A video of this can be found here. The Saturday night shows at Yonge-Dundas Square were filled with a mix of emotions because of what happened just a few hours prior. It was also filled with disorganization, cheesy MC-introductions, colourful bouncing balloons and just too many people. Most being people that had seemingly never been around other people before. Picture someone walking on the Tokyo subway on Monday morning with no shirt on and a hot pot of coffee.

Round two was to get out of there and make our way down Yonge and across Queen street. This allowed us to pass what seemed like several hundreds standing around staring at an empty stage with bright lights in preparation for the MMVAs the following night. People never fail to surprise me. By the time we made it to the Rivoli two-piece Swedish outfit The Deer Tracks were just finishing up.

I headed up to Kensington to catch Life in Vacuum at Detour Bar. Small, cramped and sadly no Kensington punks. Life in Vacuum (only one ‘c’) are a three-piece metal/punk band with groovey distorted bass. They’re from Waterloo and whenever I hear of bands from there I just assume they play math-rock which makes me a math-icist and I’m totally comfortable with this. Three white kids from the burbs that are passionate about their music. Loud and earplug-friendly. Great ‘stache on the bassist too.

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