Music

NXNE REVIEW ROUNDUP: Killer Mike, Young Magic, Flaming Lips, Protest the Hero, The Men, and more

by AUX staff

AUX had a busy little NXNE. We shot interviews with the Men about their van’s VHS collection, Zulu Winter about how Toronto is just like Austin and Chicago, and Eight and a Half told us about the strangest places they’ve ever performed. Online Producer Sam Sutherland participated in a panel with Fucked Up’s Damian Abraham about how much they both love punk, and we celebrated the launch of AUX Magazine with a full-blown rager. In addition, our photographers were roving all over the place taking great photos during every night of the festival. Somewhere in the midst of this, we actually watched some bands, which was great. Here’s what we thought.

Teenanger @ The Garrison, Wednesday
It isn’t often that a punk band translates better on record than stage, but until NXNE’s kick-off night show at the Garrison, that’s been my general take on Toronto’s Teenanger. But armed with a ton of tight new tunes from this year’s excellent Frights, the band found new depth on stage as they dug a little deeper to pull the dark, needly grooves from the record into the performance. The four-piece remain no-frills when it comes to and stage manner and banter, but they’re at the point now where the songs can speak for themeslves. (Nicole Villeneuve)

Plants & Animals @ Yonge-Dundas Square, Friday
Seeing Plants & Animals perform outdoors just seems to make sense. This idea doesn’t just come from their name but their earthy rock n’ roll jams are built for camping, road trips, or anything involving the (Canadian) countryside. Unfortunately, Yonge & Dundas Square has been the go-to free outdoor concert venue for Toronto and there definitely isn’t anything organic about it. Still, the band was successfully able to warm up the crowd for Matt Good especially when they got to songs from their 2007 masterpiece, Parc Avenue. “Faerie Dance” went over best, as they were able to have the thousands at the square sing along during the mini-suite’s third movement. Yet, even in this sweet moment, it was hard not to consider how much better the show would have gone over at a less stark venue. Kudos to festival schedulers for giving them a chance to rock the square though. The band did their best but the concrete heart of the city just isn’t the ideal place for Plants & Animals to thrive. (Chayne Japal)

Protest the Hero @ Lee’s Palace, Thursday
The GTA’s original “Noun the Verb” band took the stage late Thursday night for what felt more like a catharsis than a concert, running through songs off their three full-lengths with the enthusiasm and proficiency an upcoming slew of festival dates won’t likely afford them (the show was after all intended as a showcase for upcoming Heavy TO/Heavy MTL dates). The Whitby-bred band had the crowd in their hands right from the opening notes, running through an endless range of riffs while teens-turned-twenty-somethings tried to remember how to uncross their arms long enough to have fun. Bruised ribs and bent glasses aside, it was one hell of a set, highlighted for some by singer Rody Walker’s prolonged, cuss-filled rant about the Maple Leafs and for others by the fact they were finally able to see their old favourites somewhere other than an over-priced, open field. (Tyler Munro)

The Vibrating Beds @ the Rochester, Friday
The Vibrating Beds played a stellar set on Friday that nonetheless highlighted one of the worst aspects of Toronto’s biggest music festival: an out of town band playing to a sparse crowd in a venue nobody knew about because everyone else was busy lining up for whatever “it” band was gearing up across town (see below). But you’d never know that the Rochester was half-empty by the energy put out there by this Winnepeg 3-piece, whose soulful brand of garage rock was amplified live with an undeniable punk energy and vocalist Jenna Dangerous’ hook-heavy vocal prowess. (TM)

METZ @ Wrongbar, Friday
On the same day that they announced their exciting and well-deserved signing to Sub Pop, everyone from Toronto’s favourite band from Toronto played one of the most stacked showcases of the entire festival. But in a Sloan-ian “It’s not the band”-type twist, all the hype and enthusiasm led to a fairly unpleasant experience jostling between skanking backpack-clad drunks and assorted outliers, all eager to catch this righteously noisy trio. As a result, the band’s brutally direct post-hardcore was blunted by the need to dodge mosh amateurs at the front or try to hear over the chattering classes at the rear. METZ remain one of the most powerful musical forces in town, but through no fault of their own, this wasn’t the best place to see it. (Sam Sutherland)

The Men @ Wrongbar, Friday
Astute readers might see where this is going; despite being one of the most exciting bands on playing this year’s festival, the Men’s Friday night set at Wrongbar suffered from the same un-band-related troubles as METZ, with impossible sight lines and mediocre sound crimping their psychy-hardcore style. Playing primarily new songs from their just-finished follow-up to the acclaimed Open Your Heart, the band was in fine form, and new songs sounded promising. But frankly, it was an impossible environment to truly judge. (SS)

Brasstronaut @ the Gladstone, Friday
The breezy sounds of Brasstronaut were exactly what the muggy Gladstone Hotel venue needed on Friday night. The band was able to share their new album Mean Sun, a brilliant realization of the talent and expectations suggested by their earlier work. New songs like album opener “Bounce” were delivered with a mysteriously mature swagger. Assumably, as this record grows older, these songs will only go over even better live than they did. Brasstronaut’s beautifully crafted builds are highlighted during their performances as Brian Davies’ trumpet and Sam Davidson’s clarinet shine alongside drummer Brennan Saul’s driving rhythms. The audience couldn’t help but parallel Brasstronaut’s song structures as the crowd went from calm and restrained at the beginning, mostly due to how horribly hot it was, to boisterous by the end in approval of the bands ingenious compositions and faultless execution. (CJ)

Young Magic @ The Garrison, Friday
Lixar, the creators of the highly useful official NXNE app, sponsored Friday night’s presentation at The Garrison and gave a free drink to anyone that had the app on their phone. Surprisingly, as great as free beer is, that wasn’t best part of the night. With the venue still tingling from an earlier set by Yamantaka//Sonic Train, surprise guests Young Magic took the stage. Two thirds of the Australian/Indonesian via NY band delivered an engaging batch of heavy that seemed to be tailor-made for Garrison’s sound system. Their captivating trip-hop (yes, trip-hop) tinged dream pop heavily leans on layers and layers of percussion that emphatically blasted out of the speakers as band member Isaac Emmanuel bounced from drum machine, to tambourine, to drums while guitarist/singer Melati Malay’s radiance permeated through the crowd. It’s a wonder as to what that other guy does to make this band sound any better because the two representatives in attendance seemed to have everything completely under control. (CJ)

Flaming Lips @ Yonge-Dundas Square, Saturday
It’s hard to say whether or not the Flaming Lips’ free, outdoor, headlining set in the heart of the downtown core would have been quite as rammed had the Radiohead show north in the city not been suddenly cancelled just hours before due to the tragic, deadly stage collapse. But by goodness, was it rammed. From photographs seen after the fact, the show spectacle was, in true Flaming Lips fashion, a beautiful, whimsical, euphoric site to behold, but it’s not like anyone but spectators in the centre of the square could see that. We heard a touching tribute to Radiohead in the form of a “Knives Out” cover; we saw nothing. Too uncomfortable to be a memorable concert experience. (NV)

Killer Mike @ Wrongbar, Saturday
Fresh off of the release of his El-P produced album, R.A.P. Music, Killer Mike’s buzz status is as high as it ever has been. That was the main reason an inspired mass of “beautiful white people,” as Mike himself put it, poured into Wrongbar for his 1:00am Saturday night set. He stormed the stage and reeled off cuts from the new record and was noticeably taken aback by the level of energy in the room. He responded with a tight and perfectly paced set highlighted by the solemn R.A.P. Music stand-out “Reagan” that gave Killer Mike a chance to share his ideals before getting back to the fun. It was a great time for all but, as he walked off stage after bringing the room to a pinnacle with Purple Ribbon All-Stars’ “Kryptonite,” Killer Mike was the most satisfied man in the room. (CJ)