CJLO v. NXNE (Chapter 3: "Thursday [but not this Thursday]")

So, it turns out that my original goal of blogging North by Northeast while Team CJLO was situated in Toronto was maybe a wee bit overambitious.

When we weren’t running around, we were (I was) hobbled by sleepiness and veisalgia. Upon my return to Montreal, I was blessed with a stubborn cold, a final exam, and a minor medical procedure (ie. hey real life, how's it goin).

No time like the present, though, to revisit the glorious near past, in this belated installment I’d like to call… “two Thursdays ago.”

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My NXNE Thursday was light on shows but heavy on "networking". I use scare quotes because as a tyro to the industry, I learned that networking means "free booze.” Also attending workshops and panels during the day, I guess. 

One of the advantages of being able to write about NXNE in retrospect is that I can confidently identify the highlights of the entire week instead of speculating in media res. And, to that end, just sharing a room with Keith Harris was definitely one of those highlights.

Pictured: Cat; Taboo (n.b. not Keith Harris)

The panel was about "music production in the 21st century", and featured people who produce music in Toronto. Sure, fine, insidery but whatever. The moderator of the panel, though, made it all worth it.

His name is Keith. He produces music in the United States. He is one of the most humble and talented people I have ever had the pleasure to be around. He speaks in a soft voice and asks people about their passions. He is also the drummer for the Black Eyed Peas, a band I didn't realise had a human drummer. We even shared a laugh about file sharing in the early 2000s ("remember Limewire? THIS girl knows what I'm talking about"). He used his grandmother's  idioms in conversation. He was so real. People doubted me when I talked about his aura in the days that followed, but they weren't there. And even now, a full fortnight after the fact, when I hear a Black Eyed Peas song my usual seething annoyance gives way to fond memories.

That's Keith gentle smile behind the drumline...

I know I certainly would have stayed for the presentation/interview with Keith Harris immediately afterwards, but a couple of us had a pilgrimage to attend to.

Travel (1992 Juno winners for Instrumental Artist of the Year not pictured)

Did you know NXNE hosted afternoon shows at Lester B. Peason airport, waaaaaaay on the edge of town? We didn't either. But Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet were shipped out to Terminal 1 for just this kind of exotic showcase.

Seminal Canadian sketch comedy series the Kids in the Hall had a formative effect on my sense of humour, like many a 1990s-born anglo child. The troupe were based in Toronto and filmed in Toronto and the city often took on the role as the secret sixth member, whether it was in reasoned conversations about marriage equality on the steps of the Second Cup in the gay village, in businessmen having their heads crushed in the Financial District, or, of course, in the case of the Toronto Kid. Memorably, every season's intro featured grainy footage of everyday Toronto scored to "Having an Average Weekend" by local instrumental band Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet. The band's legacy shouldn't be reduced to being the virtual house band for a comedy show on the CBC, but considering that they provided the theme music to probably my favourite depiction of Toronto, it seemed fitting that a Toronto trip should fit them in.

For a trio that only reformed a year ago and has - to my knowledge - played very, very few shows since, Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet sounded great. Original bassist Reed Diamond passed away in 2001, so in his stead was Dallas Good of the Sadies. In the middle of a week of showcases by young upstarts trying to get the attention of labels and media, it was refreshing to hear veterans of the Canadian scene giving a solid set and seemingly not giving a fuck about the industry nor that they were playing to mostly to confused patrons in a ridiculous setting.  We got to talk to guitarist and very nice person Brian Connelly, and Kids in the Hall megafan Kayleigh (CJLO's resident campus diplomat and volunteer wrangler) got a copy of the setlist.

 It was one of the more pleasant hours I've spent in an airport.

"Networking"

And then we went to a quasi-exclusive party at a south Bathurst and things got weird. With priority given to certain NXNE badgeholders, this was a party for "influencers." I am not an influencer. There was a "tweet wall" projected and blown up on the wall, following people's very important statements about the party in realtime. There was a "hashtag us in your Instagram photos and we'll print off Polaroids and attach them on the wall, straight out of a 'warehouse chic' album on Pinterest" thing too. Twitterless, Instagramless, Friendsterless - I felt like an imposter. Even though my flip phone has a pretty nifty tip calculator.

I am willing to play the imposter under certain circumstances though. One of those is free drinks (tab for the open bar picked up by a brand of reading tablet - thanks, reading tablet guys!), another is limitless glowsticks. This party had both, plus an actual bathroom attendant (disconcerting) and DJ Brendan Canning (also disconcerting).

So we schmoozed and we drank and we made elaborate glow stick art. But we couldn't network forever - the business day had to end sometime - so eventually we wandered off to...

Guild-sanctioned archer

Archery Guild (“chaotic experiments in rock from an energetic nine-piece”): NXNE “buzz band,” champs of the local scene, pals of CJLO. Also, they're pretty good.

Archery Guild's trade is in giving you that swelling feeling, and my predominate take from the set was pretty much that. I hugged plenty of people, swooned, texted people I probably wouldn't have in the sober light of day. A casual observer would point to the preceeding hours of complimentary reading tablet rye-and-gingers, but takes a lot more than that to put me in a state of temporary euphoria. And if I'm remembering the mood of the crowd correctly, I wasn't wasn't the only one.

(And now that they're back from their mini-Ontario tour you can see them at the Sala Rossa on July 11th! You're welcome.)

Anyway. A perfect penultimate capper to a fun and well-travelled day (the final capper was watching the Learning Channel from our hotel bed, which was also perfect).

Next up: girl power, genital serenading, soggy pizza, industry Jagermiester, and fedoras. So many fedoras. 

And now your Rob Ford .gif: