leahbobet | NXNE, Day the First

Ha-HA. I bet you missed this tag. Or you didn't, but I did. So there.*

It is North By Northeast! And this year, with deliberation and malice aforethought, I took this week off work. I didn't get to enough things last year, what with work and moving house and the G20 and general craziness. This year none of that's getting in my way.

Anyways, tonight's rundown.

First stop, Rusty (Rusty!) at Dundas Square.

For those not familiar with Rusty (!), they were an awesome sort of alt-punk thing back in the mid-to-late 1990s. They had some very good songs (oh wait, this one too). They are also the second show I ever saw: summer of 1995 at Mel Lastman Square, and I remember that show distinctly. So you can see why this was a big nostalgia deal for me.

It was a good set for a short one, and an interesting mix in terms of the crowd: some older dudes who were obviously fans back when, and some younger dudes who were probably there to see the next few sets (Fucked Up was playing the next one). Yes, it was mostly dudes. A lot of them had beards, which I found odd, because usually it's supposed to be the hipsters and not the punks who are all beardy. Also, you could tell who had graduated Nineties Concert Finishing School**, because we know how to headbang right proper, thank you.

Dundas Square is still an awful concert venue. All the sound escapes up. But I got right up front and it was a beautiful night tonight, all warm-but-not-too-warm and breezy and light, so that was all fine.

I have no good critical input on the set proper, because mostly I was dancing about and trying to headbang in a fedora (bad planning)*** and going Rusty! (!) while singing along with lyrics that I somehow still remember even though they haven't played a show or been a band in something like ten years.

So that was good.

After that I didn't really have any good direction for the rest of the evening; the one other band I'd really wanted to see was actually playing opposite Rusty (!), so I'd already missed them. But Evening Hymns was on right after them at the Music Gallery, which is a kind of wonderful space -- it's actually in an old church in Grange Park, and has the incredible acoustics you'd get in an old church -- so I went.

This was a good decision.

See, I meant it. It's beautiful in there.

I stepped through the door into this little cluster of people -- it had gone standing room only -- and a wall of beautiful sound. It kind of knocked my heart sideways. So of course, it was time to stay, and I scooched down the aisle to the front, planted my butt on the floor (nice hardwood heritage church planks, and yes I will sit on the floor, because we are not proud here) and kind of just sank into it for the next half hour.

This is one of those bands I've heard of more than heard, and I'm glad I heard them. There's this layeredness, charisma, intensity to their stuff. It's this folky indie music, slightly country at times, which gets quiet or intense by turns and just goes through you. It probably didn't hurt that the music was literally something I could feel through the floor as well as hear, and it's really suited to that kind of sitting-down, intimate kind of venue. But I got the egg-of-music feeling: just closed my eyes for the last song and felt it go all around me, and was really, really, really happy.

I bought the EP after.

Sample:

I stuck around for the next band, Forest City Lovers, figuring that I had really liked the last one, and I really like Snowblink, who opened up the whole venue (and who I missed), so it was worth a try.

Sadly, this was kind of not to be. Maybe it was the sheer intensity and energy of the last set versus the decidedly more mannered feel of this one; maybe it was just the wandering kind of structure. Maybe they were honestly just nervous. But you could kind of feel the room flatten out, and people started drifting out a bit, and then so did I. Apparently I won't actually stay for anything with strings.

Rambled homeward, made a quick stop at the grocery store for tomorrow's breakfast material, and my feet are sore enough that I didn't actually go back out for the Evan Dando/Juliana Hatfield set which is...right about now. I have blackberries with creme fraiche and rose petal syrup, I have a burn in my legs from a night walking all over downtown, I have the warm feeling in my chest that means good music, and I think I am done for the evening.

Tomorrow is a major concert happening day: Diamond Rings, Land of Talk, and Stars at Dundas Square, and approximately 17,000 other shows I would like to catch in and around that. Further reports on this station as developments occur.

Goodnight. :)

*No wonder I had a rough winter/spring. Not enough concerts.
**It need not be said that I graduated Nineties Concert Finishing School summa cum laude.
***Although aesthetically? Pigtail braids and a pinstriped fedora are very good planning indeed. I swear I make more friends with good hats.