We couldn't really decide, where to start off, and work cut into catching the show at the much music parking lot. So we decided to meet at the Reverb, where we saw The Poster Children, Summer Camp and Failure last month.

The Reverb is a great little venue, that they have made within the hive of small dance club rooms that is the Big Bop. The ceiling are high, the site line good, and there are stools tables and couches to sit at.

Rebecca West gets mentioned as being part of the Halifax scene that bloomed last year. Chris from Sloan was seen heading in, adding credibility to this connection. Rebecca West, is the name of the 3 piece band, not the female lead singer and guitar player (Alison Outhit).

They were very growly, droney and loud, there were some interesting trippy songs thrown in as well as Cortney Love vocal stylings, though she obviously was not trying to mimic her stage antics or personality. Interesting, but strangely unpleasant.

Topics of concern, and song titles were:
Lumbering - Cut it Down
Social Assistance - World Falls Apart
Yuppies - Yuppie has to die
Coal miner's strike - Ginger
Hemp Legalization - Marijuana Mother fucker
Megacity - Bosses of your Back
Banks - Banks are made of Marble
Right wing Christians - train bound for glory
Privacy - man goin' round (Leadbelly)

The guys in this 4 piece band had that 70's Greg Brady look, but the singer and guitarist (Paula Kelley), had a beautiful blue dress with spaghetti straps, pearls and beehive/flip hairdo.

Their guitars were older than they were (2 guitars, bass and drums) One word describes Boy Wonder; "Yummy". Paula's voice is wonderful and the band is jangly and cheesy at the same time. Some more backing vocals by the guys would help in several of the songs though.

Their style is reasonable mix of new wave, rolling stones, and 60's girl groups. This was one of the first of several successful choices picked somewhat at random.

I Got the 7" single "Mission to Destroy" b/w "Backyard" for $3. The band manager said they had only been in Canada for a few hours, didn't really care about the exchange rate, and was happy to take large gold coins in exchange for his vinyl. The single does a good job with Paula's voice, but the material is sedated, particularly when compared to the energy level the band produces live. An obvious attempt to impress some record exec big wig by being as white milk, and non offensive as possible ?!?

Hopefully a full length release with a return engagement is in the works !

This is a very intimate club, which would be lucky to hold 50 people, It seemed quite full with the 25 or so in attendance.

Moe Berg (The Pursuit of Happiness) is following us, first we spotted him at the Bovine (Boy Wonder), now he is at the Indigo (Girl Bombs). We will see him again several times this weekend, mostly at bands with female lead singers.

The Girl Bombs exuded inexperience, in an endearing nieve way. They claim their 1st anniversary is coming up, but you could have swarn this was their first gig ever. When the drum kit was not moving across the floor, and they weren't waiting for something to happen, they did actually play some great garage punk. An all girl 3 piece band, Guitar, Vocals with Bass, and Drums. They claim the title "Canada's ONLY all-girl 60's garage punk band, that is nothing like the Gogos" and they wear it proud, along with their matching psychedelic b&w checked skirts, and go go boots.

They struck me as a cross between two other great Canadian bands, Cub and the Gruesomes.

Stephen proclaimed The Girl Bombs his favourite band, and re-iterated this throughout the weekend. This was partly because of the guitar player (he liked her fuzz box, "I have the same one at home !") Somehow I felt that this was the red headed bass player's project, and she knew exactly what she wanted the band to sound like. She had great "I'm bored shitless" vocals, on top of the fuzz garage sound. One song told why "Beer is better than boys" !

Stickers were promised, but not delivered.

To throw the Girl Bombs into stark relief, we jumped in a cab to see the techno gig from UK's James, at Lee's Palace. Steve never likes start contrast, and perhaps I should listen to him more often.

Alot of people are doing very interesting things with electronic music these days (Trent Reznor, Chemical Brothers etc.) but Money prefers the retro sound of the high frequency sine waves, and that is a rather uninteresting sound.

The guitar player had better guitar samples than he was able to play live, and the computer did most of the work, sort of like a flock of seagulls song that wouldn't end. What they really needed was more interesting gritty textured sounds, not the insesent repetitive sine waves and thin electronic drums. They did have smoke, cheesy computer graphics, and leather clad dancers. When a rather upset blonde guitar player asked why people weren't dancing, one guy yelled out "Were too drunk". Some were dancing though, and obviously enjoying themselves

Techno at it's worst (ie most boring).

As a benefit for musical therapy. "Canadian Music Therapy Trust Fund", "Canadian Association for Music Therapy". I thought maybe if was for helping down and out musicians, but it is about helping people by playing them music. sort of like NXNE; which I guess is why it was there.

The guy at the gate said it was a free Molson event, rather than a charity fund rasier, so I guess I know who had employed him to be there. For $4.50 I was able to get a crummy tasting Canadian in a plastic cup, that kept me from enjoying very many beers that night.

As there was only one block closed off, the sound was enclosed, and revererbated between the large buildings on either side. There was a large crowd though, and it was not possible to get very close to the stage while the bands were playing. Slam Duncan had been on all afternoon. I managed to catch two bands in the short time I was there.

Rusty, Toronto Ontario

Rusty plays good Alt.Rock that has now become ubiquitous. I caught the last 3 songs.

Dodgy, UK

Horns, hammond, old Codgers. I had thought that they would be kids, but they were at least as old as Sting, and maybe as old as the Stones !

They had 7 members, playing Trumpet, Trombone, Sax, Keyboards, Guitar, Drums and Bass, and they did perform a quite infectious brit pop style.

I only caught the first 3 songs and then had to make tracks to catch the 9 o'clock Bovine show.

I had contemplated going to Lee's at 1AM to catch their showcase show, but considering the distance, and the likelyhood of a packed house, it turned out not to happen.

At least one girl flashed her now leagal breasts at the band, when they prompted for such actions but I think she was too far away from them to see.

I Had downloaded a taste off the net earlier to convince me, a song called Alchol. I had to get off of their web site, since the nxne one was still not able to play RealAudio. (To busy or just broken ?)

They are a smokin' 4 piece band, with 2 guitars, bass and drums. The drummer lets out these wailing screams every so often. He is just pounding away, and then he lets out a wailing scream. Quite amazing.

They got off to a ska stomping start, and then shifted into a more grunge-a-billy style.

We saw several of the guys later at various venues (particularly at Sit 'n' spin), good to see them putting their performers wrist band to good use.

I got the 6 song EP "operate" (with bonus track) on CD for $10. The bass player had to "go and get one" as they seemed unprepared to be flogging goods.

"I bite, and I bite hard"

BZ are a 4 piece, with singer, guitar, bass and drums.

The singer is very flamboyant with his fuzzy purple jacket, feather boa and pieced nipples. He also jumped around on stage alot giving 6ft high kicks in the air.

Not clear that the rest of the band was really into the whole glam diva thing with it's sexually ambiguous overtones, but the lead zombie definitely was. When the audience applauded, he cockily asked them to clap louder.

The Glam punk style with bits of goth thrown in, lead me to a Cure meets New York Dolls pigeon hole.

Several members of The Conscience Pilot were in the audience, with other members of local Goth/Glam scene.

Instrumental surf by baby boomers.

As a bit of a breather, we settled into some great surf guitar playing by the "Los Mel-Tones", dryly sarcastic, they set to their task, quite admirably.

The 4 piece all had matching Hawaiian shirts by Wal-mart. A bit sedate perhaps but enjoyable. Although from Quebec, they were quite obviously not french.

During Los Mel-Tones show, at the 360 Pioneer was giving away a 25 Disc CD Player (PDF-605) as promotion for their first release, "Full on the Mouth" from Detroit Michigan. When we returned to the 360 later, I found a leftover promotional cassette. It is adequate techno, with some nasty sounds, but mostly not too spectacular. of course for some reason, promotional tapes usually have lame material on them.

For some reason, I was keen to see a band from Sweden or Switzerland, but luckily more realistic heads pervailed, and we saw what was possibly the best band of this year's NXNE.

An all girl 4 piece with two guitars, bass, and drums. This was one nitro burning band, hell bent for rock and roll ! They played a harder, cheezier surf style than "the Girl Bombs". More Joan Jett crossed with the Grusomes.

The platinum blonde lead singer/guitarist, reminded me of Lori Petty in tank girl.

The band was all wearing some sort of alien motif, be it Star Trek like tunics, or big cartoon aliens on their t-shirts. They also engaged in some synchronized guitar posing and other on stage antics

Moe was back again, with more people in tow, poster and monoxides stickers from earlier at the Duncan Slam. making a day of it.

I tried to buy a CD but the girl selling them was too busy schmoozing with the bass player from the Rayburns.

"hello we're the fuckoffs"

I have seen them before, and found them juvenile, but fun. Over the year or so, they have become much darker, and more serious. Also incredibly tight !

They are fronted by a guy who reminds me of John Goodman with a brush cut and sun glasses. A four piece with two guitars, bass, and drums, their style is surf punkabilly, and although there seems to be an element of humour, (look at the name) they are darker than I had expected.

That gave us 3 surf inspired bands in a row all very different,and all very good !

A Girl drummer, with 2 guitars and a big guy on bass with pig tails !

They provide a melodic sonic assult reminisant of Hüsker Dü.

They drew a good sized crowd, particularly for the 9 o'clock slot, probably partly due to the radio play they have been getting for "hair down".

Straight up alt.rock we know(?) and Love (!), with a few slowed down numbers thrown in.

I was a bit worried about how bands can distinguish themselves, when there are so many other similar bands (e.g. Rusty yesterday). Most of the bands we saw yesterday, had some sort of gimic, to help stand out, but MAdE is a no nonsense, no gimics kind of band.

Their first Cassette EP "rumball" was $5 - 6 songs from 1994, they closed with "indoor minor" from it. I also got some stickers.

Loud, and strange ! They were frantic yet sedate at the same time.

It took awhile to figure out what they were doing; while the bleach blond singer/guitar player with horn rim glasses was telling costello esque stories in a sedate montonal manner, the drummer was beating the crap out of the drums at at least twice the pace, possibly faster. This allowed them to be paradoxically slow and fast at the same time.

The other guitarist had shoulder length red hair, while the bass player played up the redneck americanism. Problem was he was almost too convincing to be believable as a parody.

As I say strange, but good, and most effective. Steve thought they were very good.

This was the only relocated show that I had noticed, but the band had done a good job of advertising the change in venue with lots of flyers everywhere. FUEL had been originally scheduled, I don't know what happened to them. Conscience Pilot had not even been on the original NXNE listing !

The Killingtyme is only a block south of Queen on Richmond, but the one map made it look further west than it really was, so we had to walk past the "other" night life. The dance clubs, where suburbanites drive downtown to pay parking lot attendants exhorbinant fees so they can then be forced to lineup outside to listen to 10 year old electronic music, and dress like their parents did 20 years ago.

Anyway I digress, but while I am ranting, the Killingtyme , like the Bovine, has the stage at the front right by the door. This is a bad idea, unless you really intend to never have a house that is more than half full, if the place is empty it may attract more people in, but if the place has a few bodies in it that want to see the show, then they crowd around the stage, no one can get in, and people have to push through the crowd to get out. A very low stage, doesn't help the band get seen either. Alot of small clubs are just that, small, it saves on the rent, but you have to stay intimate.

Anyway, so the guys in Conscience Pilot had been spotted earlier in the audience at the Ballroom Zombie's show, and they had seemed to know each other.

They were more poppy and less flamboyant than their western brethren. The band had a good sound, with lots of reverb. the singer had a loud brit pop kinda voice.

They are a 4 piece, with 2 guitars, a bass and drums. Some of the songs really rocked, but all in all they just didn't seem to catch fire.

(From Eye 970619

CONSCIENCE-LESS ACT!

The phrase "lower than whale shit" merely begins to describe the person(s) unknown who phoned the NXNE offices last week claiming to be The Conscience Pilate's management and canceled the band's showcase.

TCP found out the day before their scheduled Friday 1 a.m. El Mo show when they attempted to pick up their wristbands only to be told that they were no longer on the roster. Says singer Neil Leyton. "Whoever did this is obviously evil."

When told of the problem, NXNE offered a makeup spot for Saturday at Killintyme. Says Leyton, "It was packed so it worked out in the end. Still, this thing isn't over. If we ever find out who did this, our attorney says we can press criminal and civil charges... and we will." )

I joked about going to see the band from Peterborough, and the next thing I know we are there. It felt good to be back on Queen street, like walking through a portal or something. Twiggy is a strange place, named after the 60's model, with pictures of her everywhere. It is very "tastefully retro", with sort of a rustic Jetsons motif. Yet it also seemed to be a gay bar for the fashionly unique.

Anyway, the stage is at the back, and there are these nice little steps to sit on right in front of the stage, except the nxne staff had to keep going up and down for mostly no apparent reason. It seemed that perhaps the audience was stacked with freinds and relatives too.

The singer played bass and wore a floppy fishing hat. There were two guitars, fender and gibson and drums.

The singing was mediocre, but the band got off to a great start anyway. The songs were great walls of sound, and sonic scapes reminisant of Sugar. Steve felt they resembled a kids in the hall sketch.

For some reason they made a big effort to change a cymbal. The bass player pulled out an acoustic guitar, and played a song solo, while the rest of the band except for the drummer left. Then they all came back, and continued as before. The switch around was certainly not worth the effort, for the cymbal or the song. Still the rest of the playing was good.

Spiderbait, Australia - Horseshoe

Who'd have thunk it, sold out. so rather than wait outside, we headed back down the street.

superGARAGE, St. Catharines Ontario - Rivoli

The Rivoli was close, and I couldn't remember seeing superGARAGE before, Steve assured me that we had, and we hadn't liked it. I soon remembered, they were neither Super nor Garage. They were competant just rather boring. we lasted 2 songs, and headed back to...

Said and Done, Toronto Ontario - Twiggy

The Twiggy. The band Said and Done had given out stickers and put up posters in Twiggy. Turns out they had also been hanging out in the audience at Triphammer show. The large blonde male singer, did a Pearl Jam like vocal performance, but again it did not capture our interest. 2 songs and we were on our way.

Blanche, Toronto Ontario - Beverly

The Beverly is next door, but as I complained about before with the stage crammed at the one end, no more than about 20 people can actually see a band. Blanche is reportedly Anyhowtown regrouped, in some way, with a nice sounding blonde female singer. As we could barely fit in, we invoked the comfort factor and headed out again.

Beautiful Losers, Toronto Ontario - The 360

Not much left of NXNE now, the 360 is the next stop with the Beautiful losers. yikes, Not really beautiful, but... they actually started to play crazy train, making the mistake of asking for requests from the audience. They sounded like they were playing 3 songs at once. Steve says this is ironic, that we are so tired out from seeing so many good bands that we are actually sitting through this.

And that was the end of another NXNE event !

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Eye 970612 pre-NXNE picks from a variety of people

Eye 970619 Emily Smith's NXNE Review

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