The Joy Formidable at The Mod Club

It’s hard to believe it’s been almost 10 years since The Joy Formidable first got their start. Following the release of the alt-rock Welsh band’s third album, Hitch, earlier this year, the musical trio – comprised of Rhiannon “Ritzy” Bryan (lead vocals/guitar), Rhydian Dafydd (bass, backing vocals), and Matthew James Thomas (drums, percussion) – took over The Mod Club stage during Toronto’s annual NXNE festival. Playing in one of the festival’s larger enclosed venues, (hooray for A/C!), the band drew a sizeable crowd, most of whom seemed to be vetted fans, singing along with tracks old and new. Delivering an energetic set with a consistent voltage from beginning to end, the band’s shoegaze sound – similar in style to Camera Obscura – literally rocked the house. Rounding-out their show with “Whirring”, perhaps one of the band’s most popular tracks and a bonafide crowd-pleaser, the Joy Formidable proved to be an engaging, down-to-earth band with a proven ability to produce and perform.

NXNE Indigenous Showcase at The Great Hall

NXNE’s Indigenous Showcase, co-presented by iNATIVEfest and Gunner Records, was a curated set of upcoming and established Indigenous artists, playing against the grandeur of The Great Hall. The night kicked-off with DJ Shub, aka Dan General, formerly of A Tribe Called Red. Crafting a huge sound for just one artist, Shub’s electric hooks harkened back to his Tribe Called Red days, by merging traditional Indigenous music with heavy beats. Cranking-up the electro-influence, the encompassing beauty of traditional singing echoing throughout the Hall was undeniably inspiring, and even spiritual. Shub also managed to weave-in a few contemporary(ish) artists, including Adele and Mark Morrison.

Next up was Mariame, a Cree-Algerian singer, born and raised in Montreal, with a striking physical (and, at times, even vocal) resemblance to late songstress Selena Quintanilla. Playing a stripped-down set with only a laptop as her accompaniment, Mariame’s clear, powerful vocals rocked the Hall in a truly refreshing style. In fact, it almost felt as if Mariame teleported straight out of the late ‘90s, channeling a hip-hop, love ballad vibe à la Aaliyah or Mya. Despite lacking an instrumental presence, she offered a beautiful blend of pop songs, both original and covers.

Third in the Indigenous Showcase was Shawnee, a Mohawk singer originally from Welland, Ontario. Joined onstage by a rad four-piece band – two women and two men – the firecracker musician, decked-out in a Sgt. Pepper flaming red jacket, brought a roots-infused rock ‘n roll sound that landed somewhere between Amanda Marshall and Melissa Etheridge (unsurprisingly, one of her largest influences). Despite facing a sparse crowd, a common state throughout the night, Shawnee delivered a power-packed show that filled the house with serious sonic energy.

Dan Mangan, The Zolas, and Mother Mother at the Port Lands

Nestled in a parking lot, just south of the Gardiner Expressway, the NXNE Port Lands shows unfolded beneath a blazing summer sun.

Vancouver-based Dan Mangan managed to cool things down – in vibe, at least – by playing a set that included a chronology of emotive tracks off his past albums and EPs. With a distinct edge to his voice – a grit that is truly captivating in its strength – Mangan and his band drew a sizeable crowd that was happy to stand, sway, and lounge on beanbag chairs scattered throughout the lot. Highlighting with “Pine for Cedars”, a track from his 2009 album, Nice, Nice, Very Nice, and “Rows of Houses”, off his 2011 LP, Oh Fortune, plus a sweet birthday shout out to Mangan’s dad, the show was a standout from the day’s performances.

Another melodic squad from Van-city, The Zolas took over the southerly stage following Dan Mangan. Crafting an authentically laidback, West Coast tone through both their sound and onstage presence, the four members kept the crowd lax, hitting a sweet chord with cosmic indie ballad, “Ancient Mars”. A group that’s gained significant traction since releasing their first album in 2009, these guys have managed to remain consistent through their music, including on their most recent LP – Swooner. All-in-all, a pleasure to watch live, particularly with a cider in-hand.

The post A few highlights from NXNE 2016 appeared first on Quip Magazine.

Brave Shores: New synth kids on the block, Brave Shores is Jay and Stefanie McCarrol, a sibling duo from Toronto. It was an interesting choice to have them up on the main stage at Royal Athletic Park, as their performance of their own songs was an A for effort. High-spirited songs like “Never Come Down” or “Dancing Underwater” felt much more spontaneous on record than they did live. Give or take a year, there’s no doubt Brave Shores will do justice to themselves live.  Playing new tracks for the crowd, the infectious quality to their songs is what makes Brave Shores continue to stand out in a sea of synth pop bands, however the overall impact was diluted by repetitious lyrics that didn’t quite hit the mark live.

Sticky Fingers: There were a lot of artists playing in Victoria, but Sticky Fingers was a memorably good-looking band. The drummer was wearing jean shorts that left nothing to the imagination, and everyone needed a haircut and shower a week ago – such a look for a reggae band from Australia. Incredibly fun live, Sticky Fingers was a true delight. From love dub tunes like “Gold Snafu” to heavy noise throwdown, this was a warm set. Amusingly enough, on their Facebook description they say, “They’ll hypnotise you into a swaying trance, then punch you in the face for dancing like a hippy.”

The Zolas: Local darlings of Vancouver, The Zolas are an indie rock band with a hip sensibility and polished antics. The lead singer had interesting hand gestures and flips that were as elegant as they were silly. “Strange Girl” was amped, played up for all its worth in all the right ways. Having released the “Molotov Girls” off Light Organ Records earlier this summer, The Zolas have been on tour and plan to release a new album, currently titled Swooner in the near future.

Neon Indian: Long gone are the days when Neon Indian and chillwave will ever be in the same room again. The intense look in Alan Palomo’s eyes as he danced in serious and nimble fashion to the pop pastiche of his current discography was a blunt reminder of this. Drifting in between electronic genres, weaving synths with disco beats, there was this same dance in Neon Indian’s set that performed classics like “Terminally Chill.” VEGA INTL. Night School, despite a cover that tries too hard to be tacky, appears to be a goodie.

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Quip had an opportunity to chat with lead singer and guitarist Zachary Gray who is a laid-back, cultured man without an ounce of pretension.

We touched on one-night stands run amok, JG Ballard, and touring in the States.

Matt Caprioli: What’s the best concert you’ve been to lately?

Zachary Gray: Man, I’m not being good at remembering. I have answers to these, and I think about them sometimes, then I forget what they are…

MC: Maybe your first one? 

ZG: Yeah I remember that one. My very first concert was U2. I had never heard of them before, but I was like, 13, and a friend of mine was a huge U2 fan. I wasn’t really into music at the time, didn’t really get into playing music until my late teens. But he wanted to go so we got tickets.

It was around Christmas time, and I was so hyper to go to this concert because I’ve never been to one. And my mom said “Hey, you need to chill out. Why don’t you go outside and install Christmas lights while you wait for Brodie’s Mom to pick you up.”

So that’s what I did. I had a big staple gun, and was stapling the lights to the house, and I saw the car pull up, and on the final staple I just messed up and it went into the palm of my hand. And I looked over to my mom, and I just saw the concert in Jeopardy. If my mom sees this long ass staple in my hand, there’s no way she’d let me go.

So I snuck into the washroom, pulled the staple out, wrapped a bunch of gauze around my hand, and said “K mom going to the concert love you bye!” I went to the concert and my hand was fine.

MC: Want to share an embarrassing moment? 

ZG: Well, I could talk about my first one-night stand.

MC: That sounds like fun. I say go for it.

ZG: I went home with this girl, met her at a show and she took me back to her place. I was overly self-conscious about what a cliché it was to meet a girl at your own show and go home with her and have a one-night stand. So I wasn’t lost in the moment at all.

We weren’t drunk either. I still know her, she’s awesome and it’s not embarrassing after the fact….but anyway.

She went in the bedroom to make herself more comfortable. It was a classic, “Give me a second to make myself more comfortable.” And she was probably going to the bedroom to take her bra off or something like that. And I go to the washroom to pee, and I flush the toilet, and to my utter horror, the water level starts to rise and it doesn’t stop.

It starts to spill over the toilet, and I’m just freaking out!

Finally, I find the shut off value. But by then there’s a centimeter of water all over her washroom floor. So I had to go down there, and she’s all lying kind of sexy on the bed and I’m like “Hey…Uh, you have any towels?”

She put her bra back on, got a bunch of towels, and we spent the next half hour wiping up all the very diluted piss.

MC: Is there a song of yours you would like your ex to hear repeatedly?

ZG: A song of mine? Oh no. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. That sounds like a fate worse than death. But I have written lots of songs that I feel speak to various exes. I don’t know, I have one song that was straight up about a specific ex, and she could read it and know exactly how I feel. Basically how I feel is it was great, now it’s over, and we’ll always care about each other. Not a very dramatic song. It’s a song called “Strange Girl,” that’s one of the few songs that’s completely about one person. Lots of times I’ll have biographical stuff, but I’ll lace it pretty heavily with stories from other friends, or stories from the news, or other random ideas until it’s not really fact anymore.

MC: What’s your favorite book? 

ZG: Recently, this book called Concrete Island by JG Ballard. It’s about a guy who lives in London, and if you’ve ever been to London you know they have a pretty intense freeway system, just in the outskirts of the city that’s between the city and the suburbs. His car slips off the road and falls into an embankment while he’s on one of those freeways. Nobody sees him and he can’t get off the island because he’s too injured to head back to London…He has to sort of live this Robinson Crusoe life for a bit. It’s pretty cool. Reading JG Ballard gives you the exact same feeling as listening to Radiohead.

MC: Have you toured in the States?

ZG: We’re open to it. We’re just putting out music and going where there’s demand. If we get some traction in the States, probably. I know that people want us to come, but it’s making it financially….No, I guess we just have to go.

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DIANA, Toronto, Canada, facebook.com/DianaSound

DIANA are Toronto natives Carmen, Joseph, Paul, and Kieran. Having spent some time touring around Canada and performing at SXSW they returned home to open for no one other than Chvrches. Quite honestly, we could not think of a better band to kick start this act and perhaps even the entire Canadian Music Fest. DIANA’s music is reminiscent of early Madonna, soft in a way of luminous sounds that take you back in the sunlit early morning dreamland where everyone is in love.

Chvrches, Glasgow, Scotland, chvrches.tumblr.com

Chvrches (pronounced as Churches) have been around since 2011 and quite promptly were noted to be a very promising new music talent. Needless to say, the world caught up. CBC recently referred to them as “the most praised band at SXSW 2013” after winning the inaugural Grulke Prize at SXSW for best non-U.S. band. For a band who did not put “all of their eggs in the music basket” they sure are doing well which has a lot to do with their live performances – the band’s collective energy is contagious.

The Zolas, Vancouver, BC, thezolasmusic.com

The Zolas have always held a soft spot in our digital magazine heart. Since we got our hands on Ancient Mars last year it became clear that these guys are doing something interesting. Having seen them live we’ll rephrase that into they are doing something precious. During their interview with Quip last year Zachary Gray said it was never their intention to become a band but having found a fun way to being a band turned out to be the trick for The Zolas success.

Wildlife, Toronto, Canada, wildlifemusic.ca

A few days ago we shared …On the Heart  album review so seeing them live now was pretty much a must-do. Having entered the Great Hall at 11:30pm we sat around gazing down from the balcony wondering if the room would fill up and so it did – an hour later the entire jam-packed hall was voluntarily singing along, and I don’t mean a miscellaneous hum here and there, it was a collective musical chore with an occasional off-key wasted yell which somehow still made sense. All things considered, this would also be the first CMF performance we’ve seen where the crowd demanded an encore.

The Darcys, Toronto, Canada, thedarcys.ca

Last night’s 1am secret guest performance. If you stuck around on a school night to see this show you know it was worth it. Those who know The Darcys know the band had their share of misfortunes but they pulled through taller and stronger under the wings of Canada’s biggest music label Arts & Crafts. The Darcys live performance, much like their music, is dramatic and dark, the sound time-travels with each guitar stroke with unbreakable concentration, all of it is ghostly beautiful.

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