events
NXNE Picks: Wednesday, June 15
Forget compasses, GPS, or helpful Sherpas. From June 13–19 this year, Torontoist is here to be your guide to everything NXNE.
Jason Nunes and The Meligrove Band are back in action tonight at The Rivoli. Photo by Corbin Smith/Torontoist.
Some people go easy on the first day of a huge city-wide music festival, with that “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” idea. Well, nuts to that. Skip the babysteps and jump feet first into it, why don’t you. And here’s how to do it:
The Meligrove Band
The Rivoli (332 Queen Street West), 10 p.m.
Believe it or not, these Toronto rockers have a history that goes far beyond appearing on Radio Free Roscoe. They’ve been around for over 14 years; have ties to Death From Above 1979, The Joel Plaskett Emergency, and Owen Pallett; survived an almost–break up and four-year-long silence; and a documentary about it all is being released this summer. Catch them as they promote Shimmering Lights, their self-financed and home-recorded latest album.
Girl + The Machine
Rancho Relaxo (300 College Street), 10 p.m.
With 650 bands at this year’s festival, sometimes the standard 40-odd minute set of vocals and instrumentals just won’t do. Toronto-based Girl + The Machine’s multimedia-driven performances combine video and photography with their electro/trance-pop/psychedelic sound. The result is a wide range of musical genres synchronized to images projected on a layered canvas backdrop—a multidimensional experience of the senses.
O Voids
Horseshoe (370 Queen Street West), 10 p.m.
Almost an anagram of Quebec thrash-metal icons Voivod, Montreal’s the O Voids do post-punk at its most minimal, stripped-down and, uh, post-punky.
Red Mass
Horseshoe (370 Queen Street West), 11 p.m.
Some basic Canadian garage-rock math: Roy Vucino was in Daylight Lovers + Les Sexareenos + CPC Gangbangs. Roy Vucino is in Red Mass. Ergo, Red Mass = Awesome Band.
Chuck Ragan
El Mocambo, main floor (464 Spadina Avenue), 12 a.m.
Like hardwood floors, bananas, and police officers, some things are even better stripped down. So check out the frontman of Florida punkers Hot Water Music in his acoustic, fiddle-and-bass-ridden folk set.
TuZO
The Drake Underground (1150 Queen Street West), 1 a.m.
As we’ve learned from the best superheroes and serial killers, dual personalities are tricky to pull off. And though Hayley Gene seems pretty normal, she’s also straddling an acoustic solo career and an electronic dance pop alter-ego in TuZO (reminding us of the duality between Rebekah Higgs and Ruby Jean and the Thoughtful Bees). Also like the world’s crimefighters and doers, she’s got a partner in James McLeod, and they’re completely in tune during their sets. Someone must have taught these guys the importance of friendship, cooperation, and creativity early on. And it’s probably the same guy who taught all of us—Gene is childhood icon Fred Penner’s daughter.
Recommendations by: Carly Conway, Carly Maga, and John Semley.