Three Dog Nights

For North By North East (NXNE) festival, I spent 3 late nights catching some of the music acts around the city. Thursday night, I was at Duffy's Tavern, a local dive located on Bloor between Lansdowne and Dufferin. It wasn't an official NXNE venue but Maylee Todd, a soul singer I really enjoy, was raising money for a European tour. Tonka and Puma (2 members of Hooded Fang) opened the evening up with some ragged punk. Blake Howard (the beatific drummer), Spooky Ruben, Laura Barrett, and Henri Faberge each did one number. 80s-inspired synth-pop band Triple Gangers got the crowd moving with some dancey beats. They had some great tunes including an ode to "horny flowers" with the refrain "Shout out to my crocuses". Maylee came on at 1 am, an hour later than promised. But all is forgiven as she gave a high-energy 45 min set including a new number "Did Everything That I Could". You can view the entire set on YouTube.

Friday night was not as much fun. I had planned on going to see Olenka and The Autumn Lovers (12 am) at the Gladstone and Sheezer (2 am) at Sneaky Dee's. Knowing how busy it was going to be, my plan was to go early to Sneaky to pay for cover, get a stamp, and head over to the Gladstone. Well, the 2.30 am bedtime the night before + going to work the next day meant that I was a bit groggy Friday. I fell asleep after dinner and woke up at 12. Too late for Olenka, I decided to try my luck with Sheezer. I knew I should have headed home after seeing the line at Sneaky's, and not even counting those with priority passes. I foolishly waited from 12:40 to 2. I finally admitted defeat and walked home through the detritus of the College Street Festival. But it was an instructive evening on the thoughtlessness of people. There was the guy whose buddy left him waiting in line for an hour while he went ahead inside with his pass; the bros who only cared about getting in before the 4 am last call, getting line-ies (i.e., sneaking beer out of other bars), "creeping" on chicks, and calling anybody who dresses differently "douchebags" and "dykes"; the drunken 20-somethings hooting and hollering as they stagger down College St; and lastly, the driver waiting at an intersection in my neighbourhood who, having finished his McDonald's drink, decided to simply drop it out the car window.

Saturday was a big improvement. I stumbled upon a blistering 50-minute set by The Balconies at 1 pm. Long and McQuade had hired them as entertainment for their customer appreciation day. Despite playing on the sidewalk for passerbys in the sweltering heat, they put on a great show. From 2:30 to 4:30 pm, a couple of bands played acoustic sets as part of the NXNE picnic at Trinity Bellwoods Park. Highlights for me included a couple of fun songs by pop band Sweet Thing (last seen as Dwayne Gretzky) and also Allie Hughes. She was upstaged in her set by a small boy dancing to her numbers. For the evening, I went to Horseshoe Tavern to see 3 acts starting at 9 pm. Teenage Kicks was a loud, typical rock band. Fun live but not my kind of music. Next was one of my favourite local bands: Hooded Fang. They played mostly new stuff, with a harder edge, off their upcoming Tosta Mista CD. Two CDs in 2 years! I was able to score a free Tosta Mista teaser CD at the end of the show. Finally Jenn Grant came on with her mix of pop songs, some of which had a bit of a hip-hop/dance feel. The whole night was being streamed on CBC Radio/Sirius so a number of CBC radio personalities hosted the evening. The late nights were getting to me so I headed home before Dinosaur Bones and One Hundred Dollars came on stage.