NXNE

Canadian-indie rock, squared

TESSA VANDERHART

TORONTO — You know you’re in trouble when the registration desk at a music festival is offering free energy drinks instead of the usual water.

“Here, take one,” a red-shirted North by Northeast volunteer told me. “Take a few.”

North by Northeast (or NXNE, as the hipsters call it) — Canada’s largest independent music festival, to promoters — ran from June 8-10 in downtown Toronto.

NXNE is Canada’s answer to the larger-than-life Texan South by Southwest — and itself looms over fall Canadian festivals like the Halifax Pop Explosion (Oct 17-21) and Pop Montreal (Oct. 4-8). Hosted by Toronto’s NOW magazine (an independent weekly), the festival has become so popular that it dominates much of the Toronto music scene: when it grew so big smaller festivals sprung up to compete, but they were all annexed by this Goliath of indie-music festivals.

With over 100 shows at 32 venues, taking it all in took a lot of energy. But, for how-did-they-get-them shows like Television and the Buzzcocks — as well as modern-day indie rock champions like Omaha’s Tilly & the Wall, CBC-beloved Black Mountain, and Stars songstress Amy Millan, all crammed into tiny venues — a lot of standing was in order. And waiting. And waiting. And: rocking!

To describe it almost demands one of the boozy, self-interested music reviews that come out of more raucous festivals like Coachella and Lollapalooza. But NXNE has a cool all its own: Toronto’s trendy, black-leggingover- short-skirt fashions made Queen St. and neighbouring core even more claustrophobically cool than usual; a musical and sociological mélange of hipsters, punksters, scenesters (not that I really know what these are), old record label dudes and the requisite street meat (read: 4 a.m. hot dogs), all unified in an appreciation of “not shitty” music and copious consumption. Besides, if I were to describe to you the hair (the flowing locks of metal-hair, the endless pixie-cuts), the pants (tight. ‘Nuff said.), the atmosphere (sigh: square really is the new cool) — you’d just get jealous. Hell, I’m almost jealous, and I was there!

The secret to getting the most out of this rock-and-a-hard-place festival: the early and late shows. Yes, NXNE made it easy to rock and roll all night and party every day. Eager bands played at conference host-hotel the Holiday Inn on King throughout the day and shows ran every night, every hour on the hour, from 7 p.m. to 4 a.m. And yes, all venues were alcoholfriendly.

Winnipeg was rockingly well-represented: local heroes Novillero and the Waking Eyes were there, as were Inward Eye, Quinzy and Burnthe8track, the NODS and Easily Amused.

Okay, so it’s impossible to party for four days straight. But for those who didn’t try, the first annual Industry Town Hall meeting kicked off the conference side of the festival, with a frank and open discussion of the future of the music industry.

Rock is about change, right? Once the future of indie rock was nailed down (or not so much) at the Town Hall, two full days of speakers and workshops extolled the virtues of record deals, self-production, touring and digital music sales.

And a musician’s village at Yonge and Dundas Square — Toronto’s open-air concert venue — swagged with the best of them. The increasing popularity of the conference (and related movie festival) aside, though, it must be reiterated that NXNE is a rock festival. And as such, Winnipeg was rockingly well-represented: local heroes Novillero and the Waking Eyes were there, as were Inward Eye, Quinzy and Burnthe8track, the NODS and Easily Amused. Twilight Hotel — the one Winnipeg show I made it to — was as melancholically swilled as I’d ever hoped.

But, a pre-planned itinerary is not cool here. The best shows I happened in on — c’mon, the Adam Brown, the Creepshow — were unexpectedly brilliant. And random! Most of the music defies genre, save “rock.” And it did.

NXNE is also a bastion of optimism: it’s impossible to guess how many of the bands are small-town Ontarians, doing this on the side until that sweet record deal comes along. Well, I suppose it wouldn’t be hard to guess, as the band listing (and the unadulterated hope in musicians’ eyes) served as a fair indication.

I can’t let you forget, though, that with great rock power, comes greats rocksponsibility, namely to see a bad show or two. During one particularly pleather-infested show, to my concert companion’s great misery — and to my great amusement — the sunglassed lead singer rubbed himself ‘inappropriately’ with a T-shirt before presenting it to the crowd.

So, to sum up: this is a festival of cool, of some book-learnin’, some street-cred, and a lot of insight into the music biz. It’s the Toronto equivalent of the Folk Fest, if that makes sense; it’s a music festival in the only way that Toronto could do one, if all the stereotypes about this city are true. It’s quintessentially Toronto: more choice than you could ever want — for a $28 all-inclusive wristband, and your soul. Rock on, Toronto!