The first night of Canada's answer to SXSW, North By Northeast, kicked off in Toronto. This year's lineup is pretty amazing. check it out. Which is awesome cause the first year I lived in Toronto a couple years ago, the lineup sucked. It was all a bunch of Canadian bands I could care less about. Last year was a marked improvement, but I was only able to check out the first night, because I went back down to the States.
So now that I'm part of the "media" with this here ol' blog, I felt like it would be only fair to pony up for a priority pass and cover the event.
So night one...
(I apologize for all the shitty photos. I'm a writer)
Zola Jesus @ Sneaky Dees
I started off by checking out Zola Jesus at Sneaky Dee's. The fuckers at the door actually carded me, so I had to haul major ass on my bike to run home and get it, so I only saw half of set. From what I heard it was really good, but I was out of sorts and sweaty from the ass hauling. So I'm going to attempt to check them out again tonight.
At this point I had to watch the stupid Boston Celtics lose to the goddamn Lakers. LA can suck it. I did run into a bunch of friends from school, so that was nice to have some buddies around so I could cry into their shoulders (not really).
During halftime I did swing back over to Sneaky Dees and caught UK electronic DJ/producer Gold Panda for about 10 minutes. It was ok. Sounded like a more upbeat version of Four Tet. Just not as good. Plus seeing a dude bop up and down in front of his laptop isn't the most entertaining thing to watch.
HEALTH @ Sneaky Dees
After the game I went back to Dee's and saw HEALTH. They're from LA, which stung a little. But they fucking brought it. So it soothed over my frayed nerves from the game. I was surprised that the short, stubby dude in the grey cap was the singer. I always thought the singer was a girl with a huskier voice. Awesome electronic noise rock though.
Thee Oh Cees @ Great Hall (plus my mental state at this time)
At 1 AM, I road down to the Great Hall and caught Thee Oh Cees from San Francisco. They put on an amazing live show. So much energy. Straight up garage rock. You should definently check them out live. I saw them for the first time last fall. I was completely wasted and my friend that I was with managed to convince me to go check them out, as I was totally out of the loop, but I went. It was so much fun. They're a band that can actually get Toronto crowds to dance, which is quite an accomplishment.
Japandroids @ The Dakota Tavern (Photo cortesy of Fil Zuzarte who is an actual photographer and doesn't shoot the garbage that I shoot. Oh and that bald dude on the left is a penis.)
To the end the night I came back home and saw the secret set by Vancouver's Japandroids. They played at the Dakota which is literally in my back yard which is super convenient. The duo played a solid set, but stripped of their studio noise, the songs were a bit flat. They didn't lack in effort though.
Finally I went back to my patio with some friends and drank beers and listened to tapes until way to late.
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