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North By Northeast: Saturday Preview
It’s Thursday, which means it’s the first day of North By Northeast and the end of our previews. In the final installment of our NXNE recommendations, we’ll guide you through the best that Saturday has to offer. And, if we may say so, Saturday has a lot of good stuff to offer. Before heading out, you may want to fuel up at the 2nd Annual Back Lot BBQ put on by Six Shooter Records. It takes place at their retail store, located at 1118 Queen St. E., from 2–6 p.m. and features Six Shooter artists such as Justin Rutledge and NQ Arbuckle (not to mention BBQ and beer).
If you’ve still got energy on Sunday, you should head over to the BMO Field and check out the first NXNE Soccer Match. A charity fundraiser for The Right To Play, it pits the Music Industry vs. Media in a competition to see who can embarrass themselves less. The match takes place from 3–6 p.m. and, as far as we know, has no BBQ involved.
Wristbands, on sale at various locations throughout the city, are $28 and will get you into the shows. Most shows have a limited number of tickets on sale at the door, with varying prices, but not all.
Keep checking throughout the weekend for further coverage of NXNE.
Previously: NXNE Thursday Preview, NXNE Friday Preview.
Recommendations for Saturday, June 9
*Schedule may change without notice. For up-to-date info, check out out the NXNE schedule.
The 6ixty8ights
If you’re a fan of no-frills melodic rock with a bit of a retro throwback, then the 6ixty8ights are for you. Coming with the same sound as bands like The Golden Dogs, these four Toronto boys will impress with a lot of harmonies and rock’n’roll swagger. We’ve also heard good things about Beth In Battle Mode, so you might want to show up earlier to catch them.–MIKE WARNER
1 a.m. @ Rancho Relaxo (300 College St.) w/ Beth In Battle Mode, THE VANDELLES, LONGWAYDOWN, The Matavaras.
The D’Urbervilles
The D’Urbervilles are a bunch of guys you want to root for. A little indie, a little punk, a little post-rock, they throw it all together to make some impressive rock that’ll make you want to move your feet. Also, John O’Regan is the cutest. We’re just saying.–MIKE WARNER
12 a.m. @ The Boat (158 Augusta Ave.) w/ Terror Lake, Dead Love Triangles, The Coast, Germans.
Entire Cities
It was only time till a band came around that called themselves “experimental country.” No surprise, there’s more than a touch of avant-garde to Entire Cities. The songs are beautiful but not always in conventional forms. The same holds true for their instrumentation, especially the use of the singing saw. It may sound odd, but it works.–MIKE WARNER
1 a.m. @ The Dakota Tavern (249 Ossington Ave.) w/ Ox, $outhpaw, Fox Jaws, Captain Tractor.
The Icarus Line
The Icarus Line, pictured up top, are almost more famous for their antics than for their kick ass hard rock music. They spraypainted profanity on The Strokes’ tour bus. They received death threats when they smashed a glass case holding Stevie Ray Vaughan’s guitar at a Hard Rock Cafe and then started to play it. They’ve also started a website posting celebrities’ phone numbers. This LA-based band’s live events are equally as chaotic and fantastically fun.–AMANDA BUCKIEWICZ
12 a.m. @ the El Mocambo (464 Spadina) w/ +nurse, Brown Brigade, the Central Nervous System, Bionic, and The Midway State.
The Indie Music Market
NXNE presents the Indie Music Market at Dundas Square. Here you can check out—for free!!—bands from noon until 7:00 p.m. Since all these bands sound just too fantastic to leave out, we here at Torontoist decided to preview them all, describing each band in 10 words or less.
12:00 p.m. — Burning Boyz: Seven and eight-year-olds who like Led Zeppelin.
1:00 p.m. — Charlemagne: Pop-Punk mixed with Blues-Funk that makes you dance.
2:00 p.m. — Kill Devil Hills: Australian Rockabilly alt-country with a dark side.
3:00 p.m. — The Diodes: Legendary punks reuniting after 30 years just for NXNE.
4:00 p.m. — C’mon (pictured right): Hard sweaty rock that makes you want to smash things.
5:00 p.m. — The Pinker Tones: Electronica meets salsa meets funk equals this Barcelona band.
6:00 p.m. — God Made Me Funky: Funky jazz masters who love to make us dance.
7:00 p.m. — Tanya Morgan: Three mc’s from Brooklyn droppin’ it like it’s hot.–AMANDA BUCKIEWICZ
Just Jinjer
How do you become the biggest selling South African rock band in history? Ask Just Jinjer, who have toured with U2, performed with Def Leppard, Stevie Wonder and the Spice Girls and have performed sold out tours through London and Dubai. Their sound is raw, melodic rock with strong lyrics.–AMANDA BUCKIEWICZ
1 a.m. @ the Reverb (651 Queen St. W.) w/ Thomas Lunch, spacekitti, fjord rowboat, The Cush.
Put The Rifle Down
We’re the first to admit that we usually don’t cover much in terms of electronic music, especially live shows. A lot of bands are often too engrossed with their laptops or synths to care much about the crowd or putting on a decent performance. Luckily, this doesn’t apply to Put The Rifle Down. Not only are we enraptured with their high-energy tunes, they are dynamic live performers, aided from a fact that they have an actual drummer, not reproduced beats. We’re believers.–MIKE WARNER
11 p.m. @ the Silver Dollar (484 Spadina Ave.) w/ A Certain Symmetry, The Carps, Nif-D, Track Dirtyaz, No Dynamics, The Old Soul’s Infinite Night Party.
United Steel Workers Of Montreal
Is there a better lineup than this in the festival? You’re going to want to be here early, partially to avoid the inevitable long lineup, but mainly to catch the United Steel Workers Of Montreal. Their unique brand of folk music is often referred to as citygrass and they’re one of Canada’s best kept live secrets. Then party the rest of the night away with a bunch of wonderful musicians. That’s our plan.–MIKE WARNER
9 p.m. @ the Horseshoe (370 Queen St. W.) w/ Ohbijou, Sebastien Grainger, You Say Party! We Say Die!, In-Flight Safety, Two Hours Traffic.
Photos by Carrie Musgrave.