NXNE hotlist: where to go and who to see

photo by Brian Patterson

North-by-Northeast (NXNE) is one of Toronto’s biggest week-long cross-discipline festivals, and it’s taking over the city next week (June 10-16). Most of the people know it as music festival, the one that bars stay open really late for, but it is more than that: in addition to 1000 bands performing across the downtown core, NXNE is bringing in 150 comedians, 30 films, 60 artists, and a heavy-duty three-day interactive conference covering music, comedy, and digital industries.

What we’ve learned from the previous years is that NXNE is a well-oiled machine. You can do it all, but you just have to plan it. Or, like many of adventure seekers, you can just hit up every venue on the strip and hope to hear something good.

Here is our list of the top music shows for the week:

June 12
* Grounders [Horseshoe Tavern 12AM]
* Air Duba [The Drake Hotel Underground 11PM]

June 13
* Wordburglar [Sneaky Dee’s 9PM]
* Elaquent  [Sneaky Dee’s 11PM]
* Coeur de Pirate [The Great Hall 11PM]
* Boys Noize [Hoxton 11PM]
* Cityreal [Nocturne 11PM]
* Dan Deacon [Horseshoe Tavern 12AM]
* Jane’s Party [Supermarket 12AM]
* Christian Hansen [The Hideout 12AM]
* Blue Hawaii [The Comfort Zone 1AM]
* Pick a Piper [The Painted Lady 2AM]
* Moka Only [Sneaky Dee’s 2AM]

June 14
* Wildlife [MOD Club 8PM]
* The Beaches [The Rivoli 9PM]
* Cityreal [Sidedoor 9PM]
* The Ugly Club  [Rancho Relaxo 10PM]
* Hiawatha [Wrongbar 10PM]
* Pick a Piper [Comfort Zone 11PM]
* Buke & Gase [Horseshoe Tavern 11PM]
* St. Lucia [Wrongbar 12AM]
* Gold & Youth [Blk Box 1AM]

June 15
* Cityreal [Crawford 10PM]
* Data Romance [The Supermarket 10PM]
* Chad Valley [Blk Box 10PM]
* Dinosaur Bones  [Danforth Music Hall 10PM]
* The FranDiscos [Johnny Jackson 11PM]
* Smif n Wessun [The Drake Hotel Underground 11PM]
* Ryan Hemsworth [Blk Box 1AM]
* Hot Panda [Sneaky Dee’s 1AM]
* Papermaps [Rancho Relaxo 1AM]
* Chad Valley [Side Door 2AM]

June 16: Yonge-Dundas Square
* Smif n Wessun [7PM]
* Joey Badass [8PM]
* Ludacris [9PM]

The convenient thing is that a lot of these shows are not till later in the evening, which makes room for some film or comedy.  June 12-15, The LOT and  The Comedy Bar have funny people on stage 8PM till well after midnight. June 12-14, Tranzac Club is opening its doors to some stand up, while Vapor Central is having a few shows on June 15 and Danforth Music Hall on June 16.

Bloor Hot Docs Cinema will be screening some music and comedy documentaries, and there are a few films worth noting. We are particularly looking forward to Alone Up There, No Joke, Laugh Sabbath (collection of comedy shorts) and A Universal Language.