NXNE 2009 Day 4: Danny Fields/The Sonics/By Divine Right/Jason Collett/DD/MM/YYYY/Metz
Day 4 was just as fun as every other day of NXNE. Unbeknownst to me, despite my having read the festival guide a bajillion times, the legendary Danny Fields – the man who signed The Stooges and The MC5 to Elektra and was involved with Lou Reed, Andy Warhol, The Doors and Nico in various ways – was speaking in one of the NXNE conference rooms. I was lucky enough to sit in on the conference and Danny’s stories were great and he was great at telling them. One story went something like this…
“I remember one time, I was with Andy Warhol, and this beautiful young girl was crawling across the floor towards Andy. She gets to him and begins licking his shoes and Andy just nudges her away with his foot, like the way you’d nudge a dog away. So this girl starts heading towards the window. And she put one arm out. And one leg out. And she’s going to jump out of this 6-story building we’re in. So I say, “We can’t have this happening,” and I go and grab her and pull her back inside. And Andy says to me, (slow, detached, monotone) “Dannnnyyyy. Why’d you stop that girl? I wanted to see her jump.” That was what was cool in the 60′s, being detached, aloof. But now that I think about the ugly, old, toothless, alcoholic that girl has become, I think Andy was right; I should’ve let her jump!”
He also told a story about the legendary Nico taking a piss in public in New York City back in the day. Cuz she was cool like that.
After my volunteer shift ended I head over to Yonge-Dundas Square to catch the reformed Sonics‘ set. I stayed for a couple songs, including the old favorite, “Strychnine”, which I covered back in the day with The Plastic Fantastic Lovers (you remember em, 
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I left pretty quickly though cuz I had a long walk to make it over to the Whippersnapper Gallery to see By Divine Right. Of course, By Divine Right is better known now for being a band that once featured both Brendan Canning and Feist than anything else, but the now-trio is still a kick-ass indie-pop band. Despite my having very little cash, I would totally have shelled it out for one of their albums if they had had any at merch.
Next stop: The Horseshoe for Jason Collett. It was great to see the place packed to the brim for the A&C; songwriter’s set. Out of all the BSS guys, Collett is the one I most relate to, as the man is a classicist pop songwriter like myself. The first half of his set was a little slow. He played a lot of new songs but the first two or three he played failed to intrigue. Once he hit, “Charlyn, Angel Of Kensington” though, everything started to pick up. He played more new songs, except these were wayyyyyyy better and he also played “Out Of Time”, which the crowd went nuts for. And by the crowd, I mean me. But yeah, it was great.
After the longest walk we got to Bo (bassist in Boxes and Bags, co-leader of La Casa Muerte) ‘s new place where a craaaazy jam was going down. We got there around 2ish and just missed Japanther’s set. I was beyond pissed cuz the whole weekend I’d wanted to see Japanther, who played not one show, but like four! And when I heard they were playing at this thing, I figured I’d see em here. And I missed them. Fuck. I did get there in time to see DD/MM/YYYY and their set was great. If you haven’t heard them yet, this upcoming Toronto band plays explosive, arty, multicoloured indie-pop.
Metz was on after and they sounded good but I wasn’t crazy into their whole hardcore indie shtick.
Just want to take a second to write about this place. Located around Sterling and Bloor, this place, which has either yet to be given a name or I’ve yet to hear it, looks like an indie-kids wet dream venue. Scruffy, arty, with lights, couches, a makeshift bar in the back, an incredible soundsystem and fucking balloons, I’m labeling Bo’s new place the greatest venue in all of Toronto as of now. It was amazing.
We left just before Spiral Beach went on because we figured it’d take us long enough to get home at 3:30 and we’d seen those beaches a million times before (thoug
h they’re always great). And yeah, I got home at like 5:30. But what a night and what a NXNE. Great year.
h they’re always great). And yeah, I got home at like 5:30. But what a night and what a NXNE. Great year.
Tags: by divine right, danny fields, dd/mm/yyyy, Jason Collett, metz, the sonics
