NXNE 2004 Toronto, ON - trip report
I just got back from TO last night. The North by Northeast conference was this last weekend, and I played bass for Swizzle. The new record is finally done (I play on a bunch of the songs) and sounds GREAT! So we were all really excited to play again after a nearly 2-year hiatus. Man, it was fun.
The show was very cool, and I'll write more about that later on, but Toronto itself was the real star of the trip. Just perfect weather and what a tidy and fascinating place it is. I lived in a suburb of Toronto as a kid, and my 1/2 brother still calls it home, though he now lives in Australia. So anyways, each time I return I feel a bit more Canadian.
The people were polite and I never ONCE felt threatened or in imminent danger of being punched by some drunk college asshole, which has been the vibe the last few times I went to shows in Boston. Not that there wasn't a seedy side of the town, but the seediness was nicely, and politely, integrated into the rest of the landscape.
It's almost as if by having less rules, interpersonal respect is much more important. Social pressure keeps most people in check, instead of a tough-looking police force. I think I noticed police about 2 times, and one time it was this officer, escorting a group of nude bicyclists through the middle of town:
Thursday night we flew in and met up at the hotel then went to a patio bar for burgers and rings. You can't smoke inside in bars and restaurants in TO, so everyone flocks to the decks and patios to puff. American cigarettes cost $10 a pack.
We stayed in a suite at The Metropolitan hotel, which was very cush, though they slipped hidden charges in and mis-quoted their rate. They also had these rabid porters who would try to wrench your bags away from you if you sat in the lobby for 30 seconds.
Friday noon we rehearsed at this excellent place:
Comfortable, clean, big space inside with good equipment and a very reasonable rate. The owner was a most gracious host and later gave us a ride back into town w/ our gear.
We registered for our laminates and then attended a nice roofdeck VIP party, bumping into friends from NYC and a few from Boston, though there was a very lite representation of US bands in general. Paula Kelley's band was playing at the same hotel later that night, but we didn't run into them.
We decided to go see the band with the weirdest name, something like "I can put my arms back on and you can't". K, T & I took a nap at the hotel and actually ended up missing them but apparently we didn't miss a lot. Met up with Jim and his damned good lookin' friends. We watched a few bands, hopping around from club to club, rolling in and out of cabs, marching down late night streets like a pack of college kids. I think one of my favorite things to do is walk at night. We had some great conversations with friendly Canadians and NYC folks, but the bands we ended up seeing didn't blow me away or anything. Decided to hit the sack early and rest up for the big shew.
Saturday morning I went in search of an internet cafe and decided I will leave my computer behind in future. Damn thing is heavy and it took forever to find a place with wireless access. I guess a little advance research would have been a good idea. Later I met up w/ Kevin and Tomoko and went walking thru Chinatown, then down Queen St, then thru some of the underground mall, marveling at architecture and the hot dog stands and the overall fun, modern, yet Bohemian quality of the city. We puttered in the seemingly endless strip of groovy shops on Queen St. and tried not to get sunburned.
Saturday night was the show at Oasis, on College Ave. We ate dinner there, tapas, and ordered WAY too much food (1-2 per person is all you need, not 3-4 like it says on the menu). The club was small but super friendly and accomodating. Lots of smiles and everyone was very helpful. I hit it off with the soundman, who's name was Spock (no shit) and I found out later he played his flute along to one of our songs from the soundboard during the show.
The show was fun. It felt like we had a good energy going on stage, and though we made a bunch of mistakes I think (hope) it was at least endearing. We laughed and smiled a lot and got tons of good response from the crowd. It was like we were on another planet or something, not like playing Boston at all. Jim and a few of his extremely attractive friends came to support us, which was very cool.
After we played lots of people from the audience came up and told us how much they enjoyed it, and they took ALL the free CDs (even the people who left early grabbed CDs) and when we were done the club played the whole album on the sound system while we broke down and the other band set up.
We'd been told by one person that Oasis wasn't a great place to play, but our experience totally contradicted that. Another person mentioned that though it was kind of considered a less hipstery place to play, they had recently been featuring some interesting acts and are gaining a good reputation for their booking. The other bands were kind of up our alley, alt-country-ish, but I think we were the most eclectic and varied in terms of our material and performance. We were definitely much edgier than anything else on the bill.
After our show we dumped the gear at the hotel then zipped out to a big club that was on multiple levels and had multiple bands playing. It was enormous. We met some locals and went up to the roof for a look at the city lights. Super nice people, and one of them turned out to be the girl who was posing in this window the day before!
(she's the one on the right)
Back inside we saw a band called Tangiers that I totally dug. Definitely the best music I saw all weekend. They had sort of a Devo meets The Jam meets Talking Heads meets Sloan thing going on and lots of melodic harmonies but still kind of punky and tuff; hi energy music with class. I hear their record just came out - gotta get it.
Then Sunday I went out by myself, had some great Huevos Rancheros at a little brunch place, then shopped for a gift for Beth. Ended up getting her a polka-dot handbag which she totally loves.
Then I walked back to the hotel, had a brief chat with this banjo-playing guy, who's from New York, then we got on a plane and came home.
The show was very cool, and I'll write more about that later on, but Toronto itself was the real star of the trip. Just perfect weather and what a tidy and fascinating place it is. I lived in a suburb of Toronto as a kid, and my 1/2 brother still calls it home, though he now lives in Australia. So anyways, each time I return I feel a bit more Canadian.
The people were polite and I never ONCE felt threatened or in imminent danger of being punched by some drunk college asshole, which has been the vibe the last few times I went to shows in Boston. Not that there wasn't a seedy side of the town, but the seediness was nicely, and politely, integrated into the rest of the landscape.
It's almost as if by having less rules, interpersonal respect is much more important. Social pressure keeps most people in check, instead of a tough-looking police force. I think I noticed police about 2 times, and one time it was this officer, escorting a group of nude bicyclists through the middle of town:
Thursday night we flew in and met up at the hotel then went to a patio bar for burgers and rings. You can't smoke inside in bars and restaurants in TO, so everyone flocks to the decks and patios to puff. American cigarettes cost $10 a pack.
We stayed in a suite at The Metropolitan hotel, which was very cush, though they slipped hidden charges in and mis-quoted their rate. They also had these rabid porters who would try to wrench your bags away from you if you sat in the lobby for 30 seconds.
Friday noon we rehearsed at this excellent place:
Comfortable, clean, big space inside with good equipment and a very reasonable rate. The owner was a most gracious host and later gave us a ride back into town w/ our gear.
We registered for our laminates and then attended a nice roofdeck VIP party, bumping into friends from NYC and a few from Boston, though there was a very lite representation of US bands in general. Paula Kelley's band was playing at the same hotel later that night, but we didn't run into them.
We decided to go see the band with the weirdest name, something like "I can put my arms back on and you can't". K, T & I took a nap at the hotel and actually ended up missing them but apparently we didn't miss a lot. Met up with Jim and his damned good lookin' friends. We watched a few bands, hopping around from club to club, rolling in and out of cabs, marching down late night streets like a pack of college kids. I think one of my favorite things to do is walk at night. We had some great conversations with friendly Canadians and NYC folks, but the bands we ended up seeing didn't blow me away or anything. Decided to hit the sack early and rest up for the big shew.
Saturday morning I went in search of an internet cafe and decided I will leave my computer behind in future. Damn thing is heavy and it took forever to find a place with wireless access. I guess a little advance research would have been a good idea. Later I met up w/ Kevin and Tomoko and went walking thru Chinatown, then down Queen St, then thru some of the underground mall, marveling at architecture and the hot dog stands and the overall fun, modern, yet Bohemian quality of the city. We puttered in the seemingly endless strip of groovy shops on Queen St. and tried not to get sunburned.
Saturday night was the show at Oasis, on College Ave. We ate dinner there, tapas, and ordered WAY too much food (1-2 per person is all you need, not 3-4 like it says on the menu). The club was small but super friendly and accomodating. Lots of smiles and everyone was very helpful. I hit it off with the soundman, who's name was Spock (no shit) and I found out later he played his flute along to one of our songs from the soundboard during the show.
The show was fun. It felt like we had a good energy going on stage, and though we made a bunch of mistakes I think (hope) it was at least endearing. We laughed and smiled a lot and got tons of good response from the crowd. It was like we were on another planet or something, not like playing Boston at all. Jim and a few of his extremely attractive friends came to support us, which was very cool.
After we played lots of people from the audience came up and told us how much they enjoyed it, and they took ALL the free CDs (even the people who left early grabbed CDs) and when we were done the club played the whole album on the sound system while we broke down and the other band set up.
We'd been told by one person that Oasis wasn't a great place to play, but our experience totally contradicted that. Another person mentioned that though it was kind of considered a less hipstery place to play, they had recently been featuring some interesting acts and are gaining a good reputation for their booking. The other bands were kind of up our alley, alt-country-ish, but I think we were the most eclectic and varied in terms of our material and performance. We were definitely much edgier than anything else on the bill.
After our show we dumped the gear at the hotel then zipped out to a big club that was on multiple levels and had multiple bands playing. It was enormous. We met some locals and went up to the roof for a look at the city lights. Super nice people, and one of them turned out to be the girl who was posing in this window the day before!
(she's the one on the right)
Back inside we saw a band called Tangiers that I totally dug. Definitely the best music I saw all weekend. They had sort of a Devo meets The Jam meets Talking Heads meets Sloan thing going on and lots of melodic harmonies but still kind of punky and tuff; hi energy music with class. I hear their record just came out - gotta get it.
Then Sunday I went out by myself, had some great Huevos Rancheros at a little brunch place, then shopped for a gift for Beth. Ended up getting her a polka-dot handbag which she totally loves.
Then I walked back to the hotel, had a brief chat with this banjo-playing guy, who's from New York, then we got on a plane and came home.
