NXNE Aftermath, explanations and future plans
Hello TWM Readers…
I think I am more exhausted today and now well Weds evening than I have been in perhaps my entire life. NXNE just happened to fall on what was the busiest week in recent Rancho Relaxo history. We were open from Tuesday straight through till Monday night. I was at the venue for various parts of every NXNE night and all of Tues, Weds, Sun and Monday.
You’ll notice some incomplete coverage. I apologize for that. The weekend was tons of fun at NXNE but it also had a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes that made even making it to the venues and dragging myself out to 4 AM almost impossible. Here’s a quick recap of what I saw and didn’t write about…
Spookey Ruben at Dundas Square: Some really lousy and cheesy R & B band delayed Spookey’s set about an hour and so I only saw three songs. Still, I saw enough to realize that Spookey Ruben if given the right exposure and publicity could be more vital to the music scene today than he ever was when he had his string of hits back in the 90’s. Such energy, such a fun demeanor on stage and just a wicked guy to boot. I need to see a full set with his band asap.
Old Man Lueducke @ the Rivoli: I actually knew so little about Old Man Lueducke that based on the CD cover I saw before passing the album along to Tyler for review I thought he actually was an old man. Turns out that is more in spirit than anything else. Easily the best banter of the weekend and definitely the most earnest musician I’ve witnessed in ages. Oh and he also writes ridiculously pretty songs that I now want to know all the words to so next time I see him I can sing along. Unfortunately the Riv is horrible for chatty overly well dressed types who really don’t care what is going on and that did seriously hurt the vibe.
Elder Roche @ the Hideout: Tyler isn’t fond of the Hideout. I liked that my exhausted ass could plant itself in a fairly comfy leather couch and have a few drinks off my feet. Unfortunately for Mr. Roche that was the highlight of the set. His backhanded comments to the chatty crowd were kind of weak. Either you play through or say something with some vindication man!
Epigram @ the Hideout: Much better! I recently found out that Megan Hamilton had joined Epigram and since she is one of my most beloved locals musicians I specifically called an audible to be at the Hideout for this set. Alas an overly packed Horseshoe resulted in us also catching the above Elder Roche.
For me this was the surprise set of the weekend. With Tyler angry about being at this venue and my other TWM writers annoyed I made them watch Elder Roche the set needed to be gold. For me at least it was. It sounds not even remotely close to anything else Megan is involved in. Instead it’s an intense, experimental sound that was only all the more heavy juxtaposed with what we had heard earlier in the night. Pedals galore… vocals gymnastics that made me wonder if the poor guy singing would speak again on Sunday and only one blip being really weak work by the sound tech on the backing vocals. If you have two talented backing vocalists it’d be nice if you would let me hear them Mr. Sound Tech!
Slim Twig @ The Dollar: I saw a band in between this but was mainly drinking and hanging out at the Rancho so putting an evaluation on it would be pointless. I dug Slim Twig quite a bit. At this point I was hearing everything well on the way to being drunken so that many people slagged it for not being tight or on key probably eluded my ears. I found it rowsing and it would have led better into the Schomberg Fair than the Oholics did.
Then at 3 AM the Schomberg Fair took the stage. I manage them so you aren’t about to get words of critique from me nor was I in any shape to tell you anyhow. What ensued was one of the most fun 45 minutes I’ve had in my life. So many close friends, so many people from bands I love came out to support a band consisting of basically the nicest guys in the Toronto music scene. It was triumphant and I was proud to be a part of it.
So now what? I have sort of an NXNE hangover and I am not really sure where the online TWM is going. We need more content! I need to write more reviews… get back to doing interviews etc. The photo section is in a sad sad state I don’t even know if it will ever be back.
But there is also exciting news on the horizon. Tyler Wade and I had a meeting tonight laying the groundworks for the TWM Collective. Which is going to be something to keep an eye on… we have big and exciting plans for where this is going and the readers of twowaymonologues.com are going to get more of a 360 experience than ever before. Offline, online and all over the province. I’m not going to let the cat out of the bag yet BUT stay tuned friends as this is going to be our craziest endeavor to date.
I feel a really serious explosion of activity coming on within me… both online and offline and I intend to use this blog as a means to bring you with me. I warn you though! The grammar will be horrible, the topics won’t all be about music and you are going to be very much inside my head by reading it.
But it might be fascinating as I once had a blog that was all gonzo style writing and train of thought thinking. So all I’m saying is stay tuned… sometimes when my life is most out of control is when the best things come out of me.