NORTH BY NORTHEAST 2008 PART ONE

June 20, 2008, 06:15 PM

NORTH BY NORTHEAST 2008

By: Fridae Mattas

That time of year in Toronto when Music literally takes over not only was North By Northeast kicking but also Much Music was prepping for their annual Much Music Video Awards shutting down two main arteries in downtown Toronto. The first day of missions was the easiest and had the best weather, I loved it! I tried to fit in some films but managed to only check one out the last day of the festival. The Film is titled “Rolling Like A Stone”. It was an interesting documentary type capturing the Rolling Stones during their first visit to Sweden. Never have I seen the Rolling Stones so young I have always seen them as old men. The film is in Swedish but had English subtitles it followed a few lives affected by the Rolling Stones’ trip to Sweden and the outcome after all these years. There were some extremely sad moments as well as humorous ones. The personalities of the people in the film are what made the film lively and of course those rare super 8mm shots of the Stones partying like Rock Stars in 1965. One woman was talking about her relationship with the late former Stone Brian Jones. At one point she even said she wondered if he would still be alive today if she went with him to England. No offence to her but I am sure he didn’t die because of her rejecting him; the dude obviously had some issues. The old Swedish groupie was a former model who is now a flight attendant. Others in the film were one time popular Swedish bands “The Gonks” and “The Namelosers” partying it up with the Stones in some dudes living room in Malmo Sweden with fans, bands, and groupies, rare footage indeed. If you have the urge to see how the Stones looked like when they were youngins this is the film to see!
The film was directed by Magnus Gretten and Stefan Berg in 2006

Now onto the MUSIC quite a nice line up the first night, I saw majority of the bands I planned on seeing. “Aspirations” at the Kathedral was the first; I made it just in time to catch the last minute of their set. Two dudes singing backed up by an IPod. Good thing I made it for the last few minutes they were alright vocally but need some serious work and a band, come on now. The next band was “Hostage Life” they also played last year but this time around there was no controversial drunken jibberings. Lead singer Colin Lichti apologized for his ramblings on the bands MySpace regarding the video I recorded of a tune from last year’s NXNE set at the Wreckroom. Everyone is entitled to their opinion no matter what it is as long as you can handle the rebuttals. Hostage Life rocked their set, even though they had some serious guitar issues, eventually they managed to grab a guitar from another band. Entertaining and truly into their music “Hostage Life” was off the hook I love their personalities you can tell it’s all humor and they put all this energy into their performance Canadian Bands rock the hardest fo sho!! They all make the performance worth your time and their music is catchy, punchy and funny they are exactly who they claim to be.














After Hostage Life’s set it was time for another band down the street at the Tattoo Rock Parlour. The band is called 'The Trolleys' and they are from Brooklyn New York, they really should have stayed there. The music was kind of a bluegrass hickory naptastic sound that made every band I have ever seen that much more amazing! The lead singer looked so scared of the stage awkward and nervous. The Tattoo was practically dead maybe ten people max and still the dude was shitting his pants. It's scary evereyone is staring but I could not even see everyone in the venue and I was in the audience, the ligths were bright on the stage but the rest of the Tattoo was dim you couldn't really see faces. The best part of this band was the violinist, dude on sax and the guitarist; they were the only ones who were into the music rocking out. I almost cried laughing when I read their band description they actually compared themselves to the “Red Hot Chili Peppers” the furthest from their sound. It felt as if I was at a hoedown or something, I had to get out, couldn’t take any more of that.










Off I went to grab some “Streetmeat” (The Best Hotdogs in the world!!) because lunch and dinner were skipped and since the band blew I had time to eat before I headed over to the Funhaus. The line up at the Funhaus was awesome minus one band who claimed to be everything they are not I’ll talk about them shortly but first it’s time for USS (Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker). I saw this band for the first time at The Toronto Freedom Festival but it was pouring rain and could only get one tune on video without drenching my camera throwing a grand down the hole. I had to see them again the energy with this duo is insane, they jam so hard that you don’t even notice it’s only two dudes they entertain the crowd very well. One of the dudes was dropping the beat spinning tunes the other was on his acoustic strumming to the beat singing his heart out. They do switch it up both have good voices Human Kebab and Ashley Boo-Shultz are their stage names. Funny dudes I love a band with personalities they are so important if you do not have some sort of sparkle do not become a musician please! They also had extreme energy exactly as they did it up in the rain they killed it at the Funhaus.














When USS finished their set super crowd vanished but there was still a nice amount of bodies waiting for more music. This year NXNE had more of a draw with hoards of people at random clubs, almost every club had a decent crowd I stayed away from the super jammed venues like The Riv and The Shoe. Are you ready?? The next band hitting the stage at The Funhaus was “Age of Daze” they may have the same initials as “Art Of Dying” but the association ends there. Wow ok I’m finding words that are not too harsh but honestly the lead singer for this band asked the audience if they were ready for something different. What? What is so different about their try hard Nickelback Theory Of A Deadman sound. Vocals were so nauseating a combination of Chad Kroeger, Scott Stapp’ and ‘Tyler Connolly’ with a ‘Celine Dion’ twist but worse. Nothing absolutely nothing original about this band the best part was the guitars and drums not the composition but the sound of the instruments. Could not wait until their set was over the tunes were not memorable nor could I stand listening to dude-faces voice so of course I was thinking of going to another venue but would have missed the next band who was performing at NXNE for the first time and I missed their last show so I stayed, I went for a smoke then came back got another beer and eventually they ended.














Last band of the night was Goodbye Glory poor guys had severe technical difficulties; the band before them was so bad they terrified the sound Gods with their assiness. It’s true I’m telling you, USS didn’t have any problems and they were on before asstastic. Goodbye Glory always puts on a good show, Costa tried to sing over the guitars but they were just too loud eventually the sound evened out and they rocked the stage. Costa did bring it with the vocals I have to say the best yet, keep it up man just practice. My first time seeing the band with their new drummer Sekou Lumumba, he kept the beat tight daps for him. Bassist Rossi needs to come out of hiding I almost forgot he was there until I migrated to stage right; ultimately he did migrate from behind Staviss but needs to get into the groove a lot sooner. Berardi and Staviss did their thang on the axe nice back up vox by Berardi well done larries well done! An overall good night of music minus the two defective bands never will I see them again. Majority of the videos you can check out on FridaeTV all links to everyone and everything mentioned will be at the end of each article this is after all only part one.
















Friday the second day of coverage was rammed; it started at The Mod club where I had to walk miles because there was some street celebration going on in Little Italy shutting down College Street no Streetcar access so I missioned, who needs the gym! The first artist Lindi Ortega, I decided to see live because she used to go to my first High School and I remembered her performing at school assemblies and talent shows. I wanted to see if she was just as boring now as she was back in High School. My question was answered as soon as she hit the stage, her vocals are different now than they were back then. She was original at least, now she’s conforming to the sounds of mainstream reminded me of “Sixpence None The Richer”. Nothing original in high school she did her own thang as nappy as she was it was different.












Next band was “We Are The Take” finally managed to see these larries but was not that impressed lead singer Alcock needs to work on those vocals guitarist Craig Strickland has better vocals but he needs to work on those as well. Other than that this band is good guitars sound great and drums are holding it down. Sometimes the tunes are too nappy either way these dudes are worth a listen. This is where part one ends I am off to another venue same day in NXNE 2008 part two.











www.myspace.com/hostagelife
www.myspcae.com/thetrolleys
www.myspace.com/ubiquitoussynergyseeker
www.myspace.com/ageofdaze
www.myspace.com/goodbyegloryband
www.myspace.com/lindimusic
www.myspace.com/wearethetakeband


To Watch Videos www.youtube.com/fridaetv



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