Toronto, ON.
June 12-15th
Having been involved in the music business in some capacity or another for quite a while now, I am proud to be able to say that I have accumulated quite an extensive list of connections and “go to people” if there happens to be anything I may need as far as music goes. Well, when NXNE, Canada’s equivalent to the famed SXSW in Austin, Texas, hit Toronto between the 12th and 15th of June, it was a great opportunity to spend time with a whole bunch of these people face to face. Drinks, concerts, movie premieres, drinks, deals, relationships (business and personal) solidified and chased down with a shot of whiskey. Earplugs will be in great demand as will the ability to recover faster than normal. We’re all getting older so the invincibility that used to reign over our thought process is drifting further and further away. One day, one horribly, horribly regrettable day, I will learn that lesson. But this week was not the time to be admitted into the school of hard knocks. There was work to be done.
I made my way to the T-dot early Wednesday, with the anticipation of catching my friend Tim and his band The Stills at the Mod Club. I know little about the city of Toronto other than that it is fairly large, jumbled, and easy to get lost in (I guess all three of these would mean the same). I’ve been there on numerous occasions, but never to the extent of the traveling around I planned on doing throughout the weekend. First night in, I was already somewhere I’ve never been before. Fortunately I had a couple of very dear friends from the area guiding me around like a Seeing Eye dog and we managed to make our way to the show 15 minutes into the opening act. I didn’t catch their name right away (Hollerado, as I found out later on) but was impressed by the energy and their sheer enjoyment they had just for being up on stage. The downside of showing up fashionably late was missing most of their performance so it was over almost as quickly as it began (at least for us). Break in between sets so I leave my compatriots to their own devices while I head outside for a breath of fresh air in the shape of a Du Maurier death stick. The outside was large and electric. A nice-sized terrace in front with tables and seating possibilities galore. A bar station was set up, but clearly not open on this Wednesday night. That may be for the future private parties planned for the weekend or it may just be one of the great pluses of this particular venue. No sooner did the brown filter of my smoke hit my lips that I bumped into a couple of acquaintances from the momentum-building Arts & Crafts label, home of indie darlings like Feist, Broken Social Scene and, of course, The Stills. Industry whoring opportunity #1. I Spend a good ten minutes giving trying to be cool and collective while at the same time giving the impression that I needed them, where in reality it’s the other way around (media can exist without product whereas the other way around is impossible, or at least very, very difficult). Still, no matter how firmly entrenched I may be in the industry, I’ll always feel like I have to sell myself and be eternally grateful for the opportunities people give me to showcase them and the services that they provide. Maybe I’m just not used to being lumped into this family. Jaded? Clearly not.
Back inside where my friends were still in the same spot I left em half an hour ago (these Seeing Eye dogs also learned the meaning of the word ‘stay’, I suppose). The Stills eventually hit the stage at 10:30, approximately half an hour after Tim told me they would. But you can never take an artist for the word, can you? Right from the get-go, it’s clear that the band has polished not just their sound but their stage presence. They were always very comfortable in front of the crowd and were always great at giving whatever venue and however many number of people in the crowd a warm impression, but now there was more, so much more. That intimacy was still there, but the band performed like a band that has been around the block and are now just starting to show the confidence of someone expecting their inevitable breakthrough. Fancy lights coincided with the beat while spotlights and enjoyably over-the-top solos and synchronism among members emitted a distinct sign of complacency with where they were in their career.
The show began with the first two tracks off the Logic Will Break Your Heart album, “Lola” and “Gender Bombs”, which gave the crowd an immediate chance to sing along. With their new album not due until the Middle of August, there was a lot of curiosity but also a lot of blank, uncertain faces staring back from the floor, so starting with a couple of classics was smart.
For the next 90 minutes, Tim, Oliver and the rest did a great job mixing in the old with the new. Even tunes like “Still in Love Song” were given an update, minor tweaking to compensate for the staleness of playing the same song so many times.
As for the the new album, Oceans Will Rise, while there were a couple of iffy tracks mixed in that kind of left the crowd shuffling their feet, worried about experiencing the same disappointment that many felt regarding the band’s second album, Without Feathers, for the most part, the anticipation and excitement over the release grew at a feverish pace. The melodic harmonizing by the two co-singers during “Being Here” had the 200 some odd people bouncing around while the previously released “Snakecharming the Masses” is even better to hear live than it was on their website.
While there wasn’t a ton of actual interaction between band and crowd, that only added to the personality of the band and their guise as being all business. Sure they have their fun on stage, but they also take a ton of pride in their abilities to entertain. Nary an off-key nor broken vocals could be heard, as if the crowd would have cared. They ate it all up. Maybe it was the anticipation of what was to come over the next 4 days, but the buzz around the place was higher than one would have imagined for a Wednesday night and the band fed off of it.
When the show was over, the crowd was hot and sweaty and content. A lot of smiling faces to go along with a boatload of groupies (you know you have it made when…) failing miserably at getting into the backstage area.
At just before midnight, the prospects of a plethora of parties and industry mingling was rife. But with four straight days in front and a lot of schmoozing still to go, I felt it was best to call it an early night. Tomorrow was to be filled with movie premiers and SKUNK promoted shows that went wrong….
To be Continued…
