events
NXNE Recap: Wednesday
Forget compasses, GPS, or helpful Sherpas. From June 13–19 this year, Torontoist is here to be your guide to everything NXNE.
Torontonians were maybe a little distracted last night by a sports game of notable consequence. But while Canucks fans were moping, NXNE-ers were hopping from Ingrid Gatin at The Painted Lady to Chuck Ragan at El Mocambo. But the real place to be was the “at-capacity-since-10-o’clock” Rivoli, where The Meligrove Band played a full set of Ramones covers (which, even though we had been hoping to hear new material, was awesome) and Yukon Blonde closed as the night’s special surprise guests.
Also at the Rivoli, The Paint Movement confused us, but in the best kind of way. It was as if you put Tina Turner’s vocal cords inside of a white girl, paired her with two indie-rock guitarist/vocalists, and then backed them with an impressive funk band. If you see this band, don’t try to “figure them out”—just listen and enjoy. They were followed up by the prairie-based Library Voices, who are polished, well-balanced, and really bring it when it comes to upbeat clap-alongs. Acknowledging the Canuck’s loss, the Library Voices let the audience know that they “were going to salvage the night,” and they didn’t do a half-bad job of it, either.
We wrapped the night by heading over to the Drake where, despite some technical issues at start of the set which made everyone feel kind of uncomfortable and awkward, TuZO played a solid set. Huge points for the professionalism of the whole band for making such a full recovery and playing a great danceable electro-rock set the rest of the way through. (If there is one thing we’d like to see more of from TuZO though, it’s boldness in the performance—their music is dance-y and fun, so let’s see ’em get a bit crazier on stage.)
Now, hockey hosers who stayed in last night, it’s summertime. Tell the players to puck off, and look at what you missed out on.
Written by Carly Maga and Corbin Smith. Photos by Corbin Smith/Torontoist.