The Best and Worst of NXNE 2010
Tim Harrington of Les Savy Fav, sporting some wet TP, seriously interacts with the crowd. - photo Marsha Casselman
NXNE is over, we’ve survived, and the hangovers have subsided just enough to post some hazy recollections. After pounding the pavement and blowing out our eardrums to countless bands, we’ve compiled our best and worst moments of Toronto’s finest music festival. If you have any to add, feel free to post them in the comments section below.
Best Stage Antics
Les Savy Fav destroying Wrongbar. Self-mummification via tape and toilet paper. Nipple sucking. Carrying a 300 pound mirror on stage. Singing into it like Mr.Rogers, and through all this not even a smirk from Tim Harrington or his band. We are still waiting for our friend with the monopod to post his footage of Harrington sticking his $30000-camera down his pants.
Best Use of Physics
Man or Astroman? at the Horseshoe. Though we don’t believe their brand of surf rock fits the futuristic space men image they try for, their use of electrotherapy by way of a tesla coil sure does.
Best Interview Moment
Chunklet magazine’s Henry Owens, moderator for the NXNE conference interview with X, calls bassist John Doe “grandpa.” Doe pauses, then responds, “Easy,” with a grimace. Meanwhile, Damian Pink Eyes from Fucked Up has brought his small child to sit in on the interview. The child makes much noise, but is welcomed at any punk function, though we suspect the kid will eventually rebel from dad by way of becoming a fan of Nickleback or Ke$ha.
It's possible Demon's Claws frontman was more boozed than anyone at Rancho - photo David Forcier
Worst Interview Moment
History of rock media vet Alan Cross interviewing Mudhoney at the NXNE conference. Guess the iPad in Cross’s lap didn’t indicate the band’s (and every band’s) hatred for going through every detail of their recording history in chronological order, or their hatred for defining “grunge”.
We Expect Better
Demon’s Claws at Rancho. We love this band of Montreal retro rock celebrities (Red Mass, King Khan, etc), but on this occasion they brought only three members (they’ve apparently broken up) and so sounded pretty sparse, and possibly a bit too drunk – though we thought this not possible for a garage band.
Best Performance Followed by Déjà Vu Experience
Iggy Pop and the Stooges. About 90 per cent of us could not actually see Iggy Pop or any “fucking remnants of the fucking Stooges” (Iggy’s words). A stadium-sized show requires billboard-sized projection screens, we said. But after traveling to Wrongbar where Mannequin Men were unconsciously playing the riff from I Wanna Be Your Dog during this song, we realized Iggy and the Stooges need not worry about pleasing the masses. They’re already inside all of us.
Thee Oh Sees were just the right amount of psych for a 2am gig at the Bovine - © eddie smith photo 2010
Come Back Again
Thee Oh Sees, whose free-form freakout may have been assisted by their 2 am Bovine set time, and our mental and physical exhaustion, but who we’re more than willing to check out again in a non-NXNE environment.
Best Stumbled-Upon Experience
Violent Soho. We came across these Ecstatic Peace (Thurston Moore’s label) signees playing the living room of Tim
Pin the tail on the scenester: 159 Manning - photo MC
McCready (159 Manning now-annual BBQ). These young Nirvana-inspired men sound very U.S.A., but clear from their gravitating to the ‘barbie’ after their set, they be Aussies. Check the video footage courtesy of Graeme Phillips (NOW, Wefanscomingsoon) below.
Best BBQ
Free beer, good food, lots of music, and surprisingly little hipster posturing (perhaps it had something to do with the concurrent Vice Magazine party at Cheval) – we don’t know how João Carvalho Mastering Studio affords it, but their Leslieville BBQ is consistently the best daytime fete NXNE has to offer. We had to bail before Zeus and Buck 65 in order to make it to Yonge-Dundas Square in time for Iggy & The Stooges, but we did catch some solid sets from Brooklyn’s Savoir Adore (think Stars with less melodrama) and Dublin’s Autumn Owls (moody indie rock with some guitar heroics for good measure).
Most Overhyped
Surfer Blood and Best Coast have a few catchy pop songs, but in the grand scheme of things are grains of sand on the beach of hipster hype.
Most Relentless
Hollerado, whose “nacho house” gig on a Spadina rooftop was one of about 8 official and non-official NXNE showcases for the rising indie band. The band’s “play anywhere” ethos, stage theatrics (we’re still picking confetti out of our hair), and hook-heavy power-pop suggests they may be ready for primetime in the near future. They’ve already got a song in rotation on commercial radio and seem to be readying themselves for a push into the mainstream.
Great list.
I have to say the show at the Great Hall on Thursday night was great to see.
I wish I was at that BBQ.
I had a great time this year at NXNE.
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