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As we wrap up our NXNE coverage, we wanted to give you one last chance to grasp a taste of what it was like to be in Toronto for one sweaty week of music. Check out the best images we took of NXNE (ignore the poor composition and low resolution; we’re very DIY).
As a wrap up to this NXNE-rich week on TransCanadaRadio, we’ve compiled the very best of the great music we saw and heard over the course of the week.
Here are the top 6 bands that all of us at TCR agree were the very best of the best, in no particular order:
Click here for TransCanadaRadio’s top 6 artist picks from NXNE ‘08!
Doug’s ‘Impressions’ posts gave me an idea — now that my NXNE hangover has passed (caught up on sleep, did endless loads of laundry, sewed my poor, abused travel bag…), I’d like to talk about a few of my experiences and sum up my time at NXNE in Toronto. Alright, here goes. Doug style.
**Wifi is damn hard to find in downtown Toronto** Seriously. I could not believe how difficult it was to find wifi free or otherwise! As a blogger, it’s likely I should have secured several places from which to blog. It was just ridiculous. More than once I found myself sitting on the sidewalk outside of a random apartment building err… tapping into someone else’s unsecured network or sitting on the floor of the Holiday Inn facing a very specific direction in order to keep the weak signal connected. Bah, I say. Bah!
**I really like 70’s-esque funk/pop/psychedelic** Yep. Turns out I like psychedelic music a whole lot. It seems that some of the acts I enjoyed the most at NXNE all had elements of psychedelic pop or funk: The Hoa Hoa’s, The Wet Secrets, Spiral Beach… all totally awesome bands. This was a learning experience for me. I never knew this about myself. I feel like I’ve grown as a person. Now I can listen to the B52’s and grow out my beehive unashamed and rooooooooam if I want to! *totally grooves*
For me, NXNE has been a blur. A late arrival last night, Old Testament-style weather and Internet problems makes me wonder how I’m going to survive the rest of the festival. Here’s some quick thoughts on what I’ve seen so far:
**Don’t plan major travel on Friday the 13th** Seriously, I don’t know how we survived in our ‘83 Yugo as flash flooding and concentrated blasts of electricity battered us along the highway. Only the desire to rock kept us alive.
**Plan to dance on Friday the 13th** All the bands playing at the Silver Dollar Room had one goal in mind: sweaty booty grinding. A special nod goes to the lead singer of Oholics for bringing his Happy Mondays inspired Swedish dance moves to Canada.
**Swedish bands are weird** On that note, it was quite a trip to see Oholics. They describe themselves as a six-piece psychedelic electro-rock band, but you have to think of them in terms of The Hives meets INXS meets the Yardbirds. I mean, they have one member of the band dedicated to playing two tambourines at once and a sitar, as elctro-wails whirled around him.
**Band of the Night: the Hoa Hoa’s** These Toronto natives certainly represented for the hometown crowd. There music is a combination of groove and evil: you just want to dance and/or punch someone in the face. Their guitarist was great — loud, crunchy, articulate playing — and their bassist set her amp on fire. Major points for the predominance of hollow-bodied guitars.
That’s it for now. Off to a Vice-sponsored BBQ and then the Horseshoe for the CBC tract. Follow our exploits on Twitter and Flickr!