North by North East (NXNE), for those who don’t know, is the annual music festival in Toronto that has more than 500 international and Canadian bands playing 50 venues over 5 days, and in the past few years has also added a film festival of 30 music related films. This year was its 15th anniversary and it took place from June 17-21 (Wednesday-Sunday) and had a stellar lineup in comparison to some of the more lackluster past years, with notably The Cool Kids, The Black Lips, GZA of Wu-Tang Clan, and The Zoobombs among many, many others. For the uninitiated, prices are usually $10 to $15 a show but the best value is definitely in the $50, 5-day wristband that gets you into all the shows. However, there is no priority or even guaranteed entrance if the show is packed, so one should get there early. Of course there are various others in between and above and beyond ticket levels available ranging from $25-$250 as well. This year was my first year as music reviewer, so those who are looking for really erudite obscure band comparison references should jump ship to Pitchfork now. On the other hand, NXNE has yet to reach the level which would demand attention from Pitchfork, unlike Austin, Texas’ South by South West (SXSW) which NXNE owes name reference to. For those who are looking for descriptive reviews of general vibe, venue, music, and experience, read on!

The first night of NXNE, the Wednesday, starts slowly with only a handful of shows and the opening night party to attend but like all of the NXNE experience, it’s only as hectic as you want it to be, taking into account the amount of bands and venues one wants to hit. My destination was the opening night party at the delightful and cool refurbishment idea that is the Berkeley Church. Located at 315 Queen Street East, the church, ordinary-looking from the outside, has been renovated into a party and concert venue. I arrived an hour in and there was a short line up into the invite-only event. A quick name check of whether you’re on The List got you in, but I, despite having RSVP’d, was not on the list. Fortunately I had taken the extra precaution of printing out the digital ticket they had emailed, that I had secretly thought useless due to my confidence in The List, and that got me in. Inside it was already packed. I had never been inside this venue before, so I did a double-take as deja vu hit me when I walked in. For those who have been to the upper area of the Great Hall venue on Queen West, the Berkeley looks eerily similar. They have the same ground floor with patina-aged hardwood, overlooked by a second balcony level that wrapped around the edges of the room with an atrium view in the middle. Both have a classic town hall look with ample wood embellishments and both also even have a similar stocky and heavy bar that faces into the venue right at the entrance.

After the initial disorientation, I took a closer look around and spotted the much hyped and advertised art installation, the Skulls Exhibit, which featured a collection of skulls “custom decorated … by renowned tattoo artists” and was co-presented by the Northern Ink Xposure (NIX) Tattoo Expo. Each ceramic skull (see photos below) had been carefully detailed in various motifs with extensions like guns and incorporated steampunk ornamentation. Others were almost subsumed by their own contextual settings like the Terminator-melting-silver emerging skull. What they had to do with music was best not asked but the exhibit was definitely intriguing, visually arresting, and from the looks of the crowding, quite popular so it didn’t really matter. While downing the two complimentary beers (I was hoping for an open bar but hey, any free alcohol ain’t bad), I ran into other media cohorts who informed me of the big Arts and Crafts music label showcase at The Courthouse which was apparently the place to be later. I had previously heard about it in passing, but had not RSVP’d so was most likely not going to get into the beyond packed show. Arts and Crafts is of course the very successful Toronto based label home to great Canadian music exports such as Broken Social Scene, Metric and Stars. In the middle of my conversation with media cohorts Muted Magazine, the “show” started. For those expecting music at the opening party of a music festival, well you obviously are not in the know. Instead, there was a live “collaborative piece of artwork” done by tattoo artists known collectively as The ArtFusion Experiment, also co-presented by the Northern Ink Xposure Tattoo Expo. It was actually quite impressive to watch multiple artists simultaneously create a cohesive piece of art on a large canvas pasted to the back wall of the stage. I tried to get a good picture of the semi-finished product but my less-than-stellar camera did not manage it.

As I was considering leaving the party, the hors d’oeuvres arrived so I decided to stay longer. They were interesting high-class hors d’oeuvres, which included crab puff-like items and cheese on sliced dates. All of them were far from the Vienna sausages that I was semi-expecting for some reason, which probably would not have counted as hors d’oeuvres anyway. After a bit of looking around to see if I knew anyone, I ventured upstairs to the balcony level and was pleasantly surprised by the very well-illuminated and beautiful stained glass. The crowd was much sparser on the second level and there were two massive LCD screens set up which were plastered with advertisements for themselves exclaiming that you wouldn’t believe the difference HD made. I went back down to the first level, checked up on the progress of the art show and then called it a night. I did regret afterward not checking out any of the shows on that night, especially not trying to see if I could make my way into the Arts and Crafts show, but all in all it was an interesting media side view of a massive event. Stayed tuned for the coverage of the following nights!

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 28th, 2009 at 10:10 pm and is filed under Arts, Entertainment, Events, Music, Review, Wish You Were Here. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.