Yonge and Dundas Square

2:10pm Watching the Prince Rama exercise (or ‘exorcise’) video at my apartment. This is honestly the best piece of merch I have ever bought. — Dan Berube

3:20pm Arrive at Yonge and Dundas. Hmm… no thanks crappy blues rock band. — DB

3:35pm Talk to a drunk guy that claims to have played in Men Without Hats, Devo, and Led Zeppelin. These are dubious claims. — DB

4:00pm Time for psych/math punks DD/MM/YYYY! — DB

4:15pm Bad sound is tarnishing what is otherwise an incredible performance. One of the lead vocalists’ mic is not working at all for like 4 songs. At least there’s plenty to look at: huge painting of a skull, psychedelic banner draped over amps, giant silver bags floating around the stage and audience. — DB

7:10pm I enter the square with the sweet sounds of NYC group Cults floating through the air. — Sean MacKay

7:15pm Dundas Square is always hit or miss. Sometimes a great band won’t be able to fill the space, musically, or their music will sound muddled. Cults sound great though which is a bit surprising because I’d always considered them a small venue type band. Their indie pop tinged with 60s R&B is translating very well here. — SM

7:35pm A great set by Cults, they may have even won over some older folks who are waiting for Men Without Hats and Devo. That’s all the YDS I can handle though, I’m off to the Horseshoe. — SM

8:10pm Only ten minutes into Men Without Hats‘ set at Yonge and Dundas, and someone has already yelled ‘play what we came here to see!’ So far, they’ve inexplicably opened with “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” and then played a new song. Man, ‘Safety Dance’ cannot come soon enough. — Chris Berube

8:35pm So, there’s only five minutes left in the scheduled MWH set, and they still haven’t played “Pop Goes the World” or “Safety Dance.” They have, however, dedicated “Rhythm of Youth” to documentarian Alex Jones (at least I think that’s who he’s referring to; in any case, singer Ivan Doroschuk said “Alex Jones wants answers, and so do we!”). They also invited one of the original members back on-stage to do a song. He was wearing a do-rag. — CB

8:50pm Men Without Hats go ten minutes past their allotted set time to play a stripped-down version of “Safety Dance” — I don’t know how correct that description is, it was the regular version, but without the keyboard part, which is the most important part of that song. People seem to love it anyway, probably because front-man Doroschuk is still so charismatic. That man can caper on stage with the best of them. — CB

9:54pm Twenty minutes into Devo, and they’re already destroying the capacity audience. Mark Mothersbaugh and co. came out in clay masks, but have already undergone a few costume changes, and are now wearing their trademark Energy Domes for “Whip It!”. They’re accompanied with what look like vintage eighties video projections, including computer graphics of fruit and stars running across the screen behind them. — CB

10:25pm The one-two cover songs punch of The Rolling Stones “Satisfaction” and “Secret Agent Man” (both of which were re-arranged and recorded on Devo records at the beginning of their career) was truly crowd-pleasing. They followed it up with “Mongoloid,” a song whose racial insensitivity has not aged well. The hook, however, sounds like it was written yesterday! — CB

10:43pm Devo finished up ten minutes early, likely due to Mark Mothersbaugh’s voice, which was starting to falter near the end (at one point, he yelled “Fuck!”, clutched his throat, and started laughing into the mic). They end super-triumphantly, however, with the call-and-response anthems “Jocko Homo” and “Freedom of Choice”, with Mothersbaugh throwing plastic balls, and a bag of fudgee-os into the audience. Devo are great for the following reasons: they’re still tight, and they’re totally unselfconscious about how ridiculous they are. They own it. This is possibly my favourite band. — CB

Reposado

4:50pm Arrive at Reposado for unofficial NXNE event/Last Gang showcase thing. Free beer and ice cream!

5:05pm Hot Kid kicks out the jams. I am completely out of ways to describe garage rock bands. They sound like garage rock. Which I enjoy.

5:56pm Old friends Modern Superstitions take the ‘stage’ (front of bar). Sounding incredible! Apparently they are now a wicked hard rock band. I like it!

8:20pm At the Great Hall early for the Flemish Eye/Weird Canada showcase. Am receiving hilarious Men Without Hats updates from my brother. Damn, I should have gone to that.

9:18pm Duzheknew are on first. They are maybe my biggest pleasant surprise of the weekend. They play tightly wound post-punk with flamboyant vocals, sax, and occasional conga drum. Really cool, distinctive songs.

10:00pm Jennifer Castle (formerly known as Castlemusic) is up second. She plays simple, well-crafted folk music, and has a quietly intense vocal style.

11:01pm For those wondering, the trend of the week is percussion that you play standing up (particularly the hiked-up floor tom). The following bands have standing-up percussion: We Are Wolves, Dodos (not exactly, but close enough), Fuck Montreal, Prince Rama, DD/MM/YYYY, and the next band, Braids. Although pioneered by Mo Tucker, standing-up percussion seems to have been popularized by Animal Collective. And hey, Braids sounds a lot like Animal Collective! This is not a slam, they are an incredible live band. They recreate the sounds of their record perfectly, including lead vocalist Raphaelle Standell-Presto’s acrobatic vocals. And apparently she has food poisoning from a questionable barbeque the other day. I have nothing but good things to say about this performance.

12:00am Chad VanGaalen comes on with what appears to be a guitar with no headstock, and a cassette player and modified theremin strapped to the bottom. There is also what looks like a dreadlock hanging from the neck. What a guy! He’s playing predominantly stuff from his latest record, Diaper Island, which is pretty rockin’.

12:50am Well, that was a bit of a mess. Chad tuned multiple times between every song and seemed to have trouble remembering a lot of his own guitar parts. Oh well, he’s still the coolest guy ever.

1:00am It’s definitely too late to make it to AIDS Wolf. I guess that’s it for tonight. Seeya later, dudes! — Dan Berube

Horseshoe Tavern

9:00pm No no no no! Why did I think Teenage Kicks would be worth seeing? I should have known better — any band that describes their sound as “marrying a girl from high school ten years later” is probably not my style.

9:08pm Photo editor Bernarda Gospic and I take off after a couple tracks. Teenage Kicks are too Billboard modern rock chart for me. They’re better than Nickelback, but that’s not setting the bar very high.

9:15pm Walking back to Dundas Square to see Devo, chatting about our mutual love of Taking Back Sunday, this was a good choice.

9:30pm YDS is too packed to see anything. We’re forced to watch the performance on a screen. The music sounds much more distant than it actually is. I don’t mind that much because I don’t like Devo.

10:03pm We’ve returned to the Horseshoe for local indie pop (with a hint of folk rock) act Hooded Fang. My expectations are high since I really enjoyed their debut album, especially their track “Laughing”.

10:09pm This is okay, the crowd is very talkative though. I’m far back enough to notice how many people aren’t paying attention to the band. The Horseshoe is heating up too, and not in the good way.

10:18pm Hooded Fang are playing some new tracks from their upcoming full length Tosta Mista, it’s sounding really good.

10:35pm Damn, the song I was waiting for all night kind of sucked. The male singer was suffering toward the end of the show, vocal chord issues or something. He’s far better on the record.

11:05pm Garage rockers Chang A Lang are tearing up the Bovine Sex Club. It’s super cramped, so the venue isn’t ideal for anything except gawking at the insane decor that covers the walls and ceilings, but there’s still a good vibe for the band.

11:30pm This is definitely the best band of the night so far. They’ve got a quirky sense of humour and a lot of energy.

11:56pm On now to the Rivoli where Papermaps are starting their set a bit earlier than planned.

12:03am Pretty straight ahead indie rock, no big surprises here. It’s played well though and there are some good hooks, so there’s not a lot to dislike about the band.

12:30am Over at the Horseshoe now for Dinosaur Bones. This is where NXNE fatigue is starting to set in. There’s only so much music one can absorb over a week before it becomes background noise. Dino Bones seem good, but because the Shoe is so packed and I came late I’m too far away for the music to really have much of an impact.

1:01am $100 are a band I’ve always heard a lot about, but have never seen. Time to change all that. The Toronto alt-country act take the stage.

1:09am It could be my fatigue effecting my judgement, but I really dislike $100. It’s not that I don’t enjoy country music, it’s their brand of all minor chords, depressing take on the genre that doesn’t appeal to me. Too bad, I was looking forward to them.

1:15am Time to take a break, there’s one more band to see tonight and I’m afraid of being too burnt out for them.

1:54am Back at the Bovine, San Francisco garage rocker Ty Segall is playing a “secret show” to a packed room. This is exactly the wall of sound, obnoxiously distorted, rock and roll that I needed after that horrible downer that was $100. Ty Segall, you are saving my night!

2:15am Segall attract a diverse crowd. Indie kids and punks, old and young, all coming together for Segall’s deafening take on pop music. Believe it or not, there’s some strong hooks beneath the heavily distorted guitars.

2:35am That’s it, I’m done. I want to hear more music, but I know I can’t. Regaining my hearing is the more important goal now. Thanks for reading! — Sean MacKay