NXNE back in the club
The Port Lands experiment is over, so you’ll find great music in various venues and Yonge-Dundas. Let Ben Rayner be your guide
Meet the new North by Northeast festival, same as the old North by Northeast festival.
Sort of. NXNE’s organizers were big enough at the end of 2017 to concede that their two-year experiment in turning what was once a crosstown club crawl modelled on Austin’s beloved South by Southwest festival — which remains a silent American partner in NXNE — into a ticketed event localized in the Toronto Port Lands had widely been judged a failure by the local concertgoing public. So it’s back to a more familiar, if still slightly modified model this year.
“Give the people what they want,” conciliatory founder and former NOW magazine publisher Michael Hollett messaged me at the time. And that’s exactly what he’s done, bringing North by Northeast back from the boonies to its former hub in Yonge-Dundas Square — which played host to memorable outdoor NXNE gigs by the Stooges, the National, St. Vincent and the Flaming Lips back in the day — for three nights’ worth of free shows from June 15-17 in a newly expanded “festival village” that now encompasses not just the square itself, but a sizable chunk of nearby Yonge St., too, while also proffering a week’s worth of curated, small-venue “Club Land” showcases in various nightspots about town from June 9-16 for those who prefer their NXNE experience somewhat old-school.
To shake that format out of its presumed doldrums, NXNE has once again invited a bevy of mostly local musicians and scenesters to program the club nights with their own personal picks for Next Big Thing.
If you’re curious what might be tweaking the ears of such disparate Toronto musicians as Blue Rodeo’s Jim Cuddy, Change of Heart/Public Animal frontman Ian Blurton, Leah Fay and Peter Dreimanis of July Talk, rappers k-os and Cadence Weapon, Cone McCaslin of Sum 41, Katie Monks of Dilly Dally, Jasmyn Burke of Weaves, Prince Josh of dance-pop duo Prince Innocence or Moe Berg of the Pursuit of Happiness these days, now’s your chance to find out.
A $29 wristband gets you into more than 30 Club Land gigs so you can be as thorough and as nerdy or as lazy as you want to be.
The curators are here to help, obviously, but so are we. Here are some of the acts worth your attention at NXNE 2018.
Jazz Cartier. The young Toronto rapper is an unfailingly energetic and entertaining live performer and a smart choice to kick off this year’s NXNE free-concert series in YongeDundas Square. He is no doubt aware that this could be a legend-making hometown performance and will proceed accordingly. At Festival Village on Friday, June 15, at 9:15 p.m.
Cat and the Queen. Toronto singer, songwriter and keyboardist Cat Montgomery has been bubbling under locally for awhile now, drawing one fan at a time to her cabaret-influenced power-pop tunes with a live show that benefits as much from her loony sense of humour as her band’s idiosyncratic musicianship. She’s got a lot of goodwill in the scene at the moment.
Chvrches. The coed Scottish electro-pop trio has come a long way from its first tentative North American live dates at SXSW and Canadian Music Week five years agoand is now a truly walloping dance machine onstage. With pop hits aplenty above and beyond the beats, to boot. At Festival Village on Saturday, June 16, at 9:15 p.m.
Die Mannequin. Toronto rock chick sans pareil Care Failure doesn’t play nearly as often as she should. When she does, however, whatever form Die Mannequin might take at the moment, it tends to live up to her caustic standards. At the Bovine Sex Club on Saturday, June 9.
Hard to Kill. Teddy Fantum and G Milla bring some welcome bite, grit and danger to the gauzy, grey sound of modern-day Toronto hip hop. At the Garrison on Wednesday, June 13.
The Highest Order. Toronto’s best-kept psych-rock secret, fronted by the effortlessly (and uncaringly) cool Simone Schmidt of Fiver/One Hundred Dollars notoriety. At the Dakota Tavern on Tuesday, June 12.
Ice Cream. Murky/groovy electro-dreaminess from Toronto, as chilly as the name implies. But also not. At the Baby G on Tuesday, June 12.
Lights. The 905-raised Canadian synth-pop pixie — and sometime comic-book auteur — looked ready for far bigger rooms during her two-night exhometown stand in support of 2017’s Skin & Earth album earlier this year. This Yonge-Dundas Square date should put her over the top in Toronto. At Festival Village on Saturday, June 16, at 8 p.m.
Mimico. Toronto trio that’s found the sweet spot between Goth-y post-punk and Pink Floyd and likes to dive right in there and let it breathe. Wicked new album on the way and they are definitely “on the verge,” as the saying goes. At the Bovine Sex Club on Saturday, June 16.
NOBRO. Three young women from Montreal who will rip your face off with the rock and the roll. At the Bovine Sex Club on Saturday, June 9.
Nyssa. This Toronto singer, producer and high priestess of the “bad girls” prefers to mess with electronics but at heart she’s a rock ‘n’ roller in the classic mould. At the Garrison on Thursday, June 14.
Strands. Jasmyn Burke of Weaves is one of the finest and most singular frontwomen to grace our town in a long time. This is her new thing. At Festival Village on Saturday, June 16, at 5 p.m.
Tinashe. Kentucky-born Tinashe Jorgenson Kachingwe has the understated, half-traditional/half-futuristic 21st-century R&B thing down pat. Up to date with the au courant robosoul atmospherics of The Weeknd, but also decisively anchored in the work of such trailblazing predecessors as Janet Jackson, Erykah Badu and Kelis. At Festival Village on Sunday, June 17, at 9:15 p.m.
Torres. Intelligently tormented misfit miserablism in the Cat Power/Sharon Van Etten vein, muscled up with a bit of P.J. Harvey-esque guitarrock chug. At Festival Village on Sunday, June 17, at 4 p.m.
U.S. Girls. If you haven’t caught up with onetime avantgarde noisemaker Meg Remy since she turned U.S. Girls into the limber eight-piece discofunk “arkestra” currently touring behind the recent, excellent In a Poem Unlimited album, you are about to have your mind blown. That is all. At Festival Village on Friday, June 15, at 7 p.m.