North By NorthEast Festival wrapped up earlier this week.
My friends and I tried to get to a lot of the events but as with any multi-venue festival it’s nearly impossible to see it all.
From the parties, bands and sessions we made it to, here’s my hits and misses.
Hit: Nineties nostalgia with Evan Dando & Julianna Hatfield at Lee’s Palace
Miss: Asian Pseudo-Elvis Impression from Dirty Beaches, it just seemed pretentious, indulgent nonsense.
Hit: Interactive; we didn’t make it to that many but I was impressed by the scope and content of the sessions
Miss: XM Satellite Party at Skybar – why did so many people call this a BBQ when there was no food? Not that we needed food but having just one type of drink; beer at $4.50/can, was a bit of a miss too!
Hit: XM Satellite Party at Skybar – although the party portion was a miss the music was a hit; featuring Hollerado, Zeus, Dinosaur Bones, and Washington!
Miss: Deerhoof; Special Guests at Horseshoe Tavern, even though this was a surprise performance, which are usually highly anticipated, very few people hung around. Watching Deerhoof is like seeing two bands competing, a lead singer performing energetic Japa-Pop and the rest of the band putting on a punk-pop show.
Hit: The Pack A.D. ; Chick-rock at it’s best, in the year since seeing them at NXNE ’10 they’ve honed their stage presence and performance into a winning combination of personality and great music.
Miss: Taxis & Traffic; not really directly related to NXNE but atrocious traffic and expensive taxis heavily influence the overall experience.
Hit: Cults; not knowing anything about this band resulted in a very pleasant surprise.
Hit: Wildlife; an unexpecte, unplanned stop at Horseshoe Tavern resulted in hearing this great local band.
Hit: Yonge-Dundas Square: A great FREE line-up of bands each night bring this public space to life and introduces NXNE to a huge audience.
As you can see there was more hits than misses, I could go on with more too. If you get a chance to participate in NXNE in the future, you should check it out.