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North by Northeast 2008 Blog

Town Hall with no cheer

Thursday, June 12, 2008 | 08:38 PM ET

Now in its 14th year, North by Northeast is one of Canada’s leading independent music festivals. Along with conference and film components, this year’s edition will bring over 500 musical acts (ranging from up-and-comers like Justin Rutledge and We Are Wolves to seasoned vets like Evan Dando and Teenage Head) to 40 venues in downtown Toronto. CBCNews.ca music columnist Sarah Liss will be hitting the clubs till the wee hours and documenting her rock ‘n’ roll adventures in blog format. Check here for Sarah’s daily updates from the festival.

There are few lovelier places to spend a summer night in Toronto than down at the Palais Royale, the recently restored historical dance hall where, back in the 1920s, young belles and their beaus used to meet up for a foxtrot by the lake. There wasn’t much foxtrotting at Wednesday night’s NXNE kickoff party, though. Instead, the prevailing vibe was much more like a commercial for premium beer, or perhaps a house party scene from a John Hughes movie. Monte Forte – a.k.a. Toronto rock stalwart Moe Berg’s karaoke-esque cover band – busted out a tinny medley of predictable 80s covers. (Can I get a Jessie’s Girl? OK, what about a Total Eclipse of the Heart?) It echoed out over Lake Ontario. Meanwhile, well-heeled industry dudes in natty button-downs and pricey shades exchanged bro-hugs as pretty young things in sundresses sipped RockStar 6.9, a vodka-based energy drink. (Curiously, though RockStar 6.9 appeared to be one of the night’s sponsors, guests still had to pay for their beverages. Actually, we had to pay for even nonalcoholic drinks. Way to rake in the bucks, NXNE!)

The bash was a rather lacklustre opening salvo for this year’s North by Northeast fest –there was a curiously low celeb quota, and though the patio was packed, the inside ballroom was all but deserted. (Was that a tumbleweed rolling by the RockStar 6.9 kiosk?)

Under-attendance – or perhaps a general sense of disinterest – seems to be a theme of my festival experience thus far. Admittedly, I’ve barely scraped the surface of NXNE 14, but compared to the inaugural Town Hall a couple years back, which was so popular that there was barely standing room, today’s meeting of musical minds was a bust. I swear the panel -- which included EMI’s ruby-slippered Sid “daughter of John” McCain, Polaris Prize honcho Steve Jordan (who made no mention of today’s longlist announcement) and Jay Malinowski of Bedouin Soundclash – outnumbered the audience by a factor of ten.

Not that attendees missed much. The unstructured discussion about the state of the music industry dissolved into personal agenda-pushing and inane squabbles. There were a handful of good points: I particularly enjoyed Inked Magazine editor Jason Buhrmeister’s observation that the almost all-white panel was ill-equipped to comment on ringtones or other trends in the urban music industry. But overall, moderator George Pettit (of Alexisonfire) had a hard time keeping the Town Hall on course, which resulted in a muddled mess. The saving grace was Damian Abraham, of T.O. hardcore crew F***ed Up, who offered countless moments of levity. His comment that the free-download-happy kids of today are missing out on dealing with snobbish indie record-store clerks was a highlight.

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Comments

Chris (bigpuck)

A very well written story and your painful observation of opening night; rather distubring to read your final paragraph on how out of the touch the panel of "experts" were on urban music (much like the NHL being run by lawyers). I had planned on being in attendance Wednesday through Friday but a pressing issue at home kept me away; reading your story Sarah, all I have to add is "thank you".

Posted June 13, 2008 04:04 PM

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