lagging tales: NxNE day 3

Day three of North by Northeast was somewhat of a treasure. Besides having worked eight hour days both Friday and Saturday off of two to three hours of sleep each night, I held up my strength for the festival's finale.

My retail job announced in the morning of that day that Wintersleep would be playing outside a free concert as soon as my shift was over. Needless to say, I was more than pleased as an easy-excitable person who's almost obsessed with said East Coast rockers. It was a short set, but made me a happy camper as they played all of the songs off of their latest album Welcome To The Night Sky. It also reminded me of how much I loved this city, with all of its opportunities (especially if they are free and unexpected). And it took away the pain of standing on my feet for two days just for that short moment. P.S. my retail job is NOT sears.

So, that night, I attended CBC Radio 3's showcase at the Horseshoe Tavern. The pain in my feet worsened with each band unfortunately and I wasn't the happiest concert-goer. However, the night was not terrible.

Rebekah Higgs played first, and she assembled a crew of talented folks for her back up including Laura Barrett and Paul Aucoin. She's beautiful and played just as beautiful songs for her opening set. What's odd is that she not only looks completely different in her pictures on MySpace but also her voice sounds different (and by that I mean on MySpace she sounds like Feist). But her set was nice, breezy, and collected.

Next up was a band I've been waiting to see for ages: Spiral Beach. I'm marveled at their talent at such a young age (rather, my age) and even though you could tell their set was pretty different from when they actually play (i.e. this was in front of industry people, family, older people/not their usual crowd) but they did their best with energy and charisma. Singer Maddy seemed to be holding back a little and drummer Daniel was covered by the antics of bassist and guitarist Dorian and Airick, but it was still a great performance.

Hm... Hey Rosetta! was next.. I don't remember much about them. They were all for the dramatics yet somehow everyone but the front man looked bored out of their minds, or at least really tired. Is it weird that every time I hear their name I think they're a hardcore band? And they are very, very not. The music was pretty and something I'd fall asleep soothingly to, but I still cannot figure out why everyone drools over this band. Even Grant Lawrence, whom I had the pleasure of meeting later on in the night (and actually asked my opinion about certain bands, for example Smothered in Hugs) introduced them as his favourite East Coast band. What am I missing?

By that point, my feet were in excruciating pain and I wasn't digging the hot atmosphere that took hours for me to be able to get to the bar and aquire a drink of water. But I wanted to see Matt Mays & El Torpedo. Who, for some reason, I also thought would be different than they actually are. As in for some reason I went thinking they were folksy but are actually pretty hard rock. The music was good and it was fun watching them and their audience's energy bounce (especially because Mays came dressed very blatantly as a trucker) but the crowd got a little annoying after a while as I was dodging beer bottles like it was that shooting ducks game for no reason.

Let's see... The D'ubervilles were next. They were pretty fun to watch, especially because they're all so fabulously goofy looking. There were colours, crazy grooves, and hand claps! That all makes for a good time. I'd see them again.

This last part might be slightly embarrassing, but I must say it. I fell asleep during Ladyhawk. It was only for a few minutes during their insane last song, but.. sooorrry Ladyhawk fans.