NXNE 2007: Day 3

By day three, it was becoming painfully obvious that I wasn't going to be sticking to my original planned schedule for NXNE. Upon reaching The Horseshoe on Saturday night, I could see that trying to catch Ohbijou was only going to irritate me since we were already late and the lineup stretched down Queen St and turned onto Spadina. That didn't bother me too much since I knew that they played throughout the city regularly. So instead we just headed straight for The Rivoli in hopes of catching Hello Operator.

Hello Operator gets the NXNE prize for most energetic band that I saw. Ah, the youthful energy! I saw a lot of older, more seasoned bands this time around so seeing a powerhouse like these guys was a very welcome change. They blasted through their new wave set with rapid speed, and that suited their style nicely. All the songs on their myspace page were represented here. On vinyl, (haha!) they sound a lot like The Cars, but in a live setting they have a much harder edge to their sound, which easily whips a young crowd like Saturday night's into a delightfully hysterical frenzy.

Hello Operator is on myspace / Download: 55 Regrets mp3 / My pics of Hello Operator are on flickr.

After that, we scooted on over to Lee's Palace to see the airy orchestral pop of Great Northern. The band is from California, but there are definite similarities between their music and the type of bands that have been floating around our fair city, or, perhaps more accurately, the Montreal music scene these days. There are male and female vocals a-plenty, and the darkly lit stage created a mood of melancholy that was suitable to their style of music. I had heard a little bit about this band but I was actually very unfamiliar with their sound. I definitely like what I heard, although I think I would have to listen to the album a few more times to really appreciate it. Very enjoyable show nonetheless.

Great Northern on myspace / Download: Just A Dream mp3 / My pics of Great Northern are on flickr.

Finally, we stuck around to see Urge Overkill. I really only have a mild interest in this band, and my reasons for sticking around to see them were really out of curiosity to see if these guys are still capable of rocking out. As you likely know, their self-destructive history has led many to wonder if they still have it in them. Answer? Yep. They rocked it old school without missing a beat and running through all of the crowd favourites. By this time I was now beyond tired so I only stayed for the first encore. The way the fans were cheering, I'm sure that they had at least one more and I'd be curious to know if they did bother to whip out the old Neil Diamond cover or not.

Urge Overkill on myspace / Download: Sister Havana mp3 / My pics of Urge Overkill are on flickr.