I go to a lot of concerts, everything from huge classic rock megabands to teensy little indie bands, and I have a long history of checking out bands that I don't know too much about, fingers crossed, hoping that whatever little tidbit of info that made me curious about them would pay off in a new musical experience, or at the very least a good rockin' time. I've been reading about Austin's legendary SXSW festival for years, and even though it does sound like quite the zoo, it also sounds like a music lover's dream and I'd love just once to check it out. Despite this, I've never tried the local version in Toronto, NXNE, in all the years they've had it. I was always a bit suspicious of how the whole thing works ... and now I know why.
I got an all access wristband for this year's NXNE and yet despite this, I missed both Matt & Kim at the Whippersnapper Gallery and Band of Skulls and Spinnerette at the Mod Club because of the festival's "suckers-who-bought-wristbands-get-in-last" policy. It seems to me that a festival like this is supposed to be a showcase for smaller up-and-coming bands, basically a way for them to create buzz since they're not doing full sets for the most part (most shows are an hour tops), and also a way for music fans to sample a lot of different types of music over a five-day period. So theoretically, for the musically curious like me, it's a way to check out a number of different bands that you don't know much about and you wouldn't necessarily pay full price to see, which sounds like a pretty cool idea to me. But how the fuck does that happen if the "all access" wristband doesn't give you all access??? And the added bonus at a festival like this is that basically you're fighting against legions of hipster douchebags who desperately want to be the first ones to see the hip new band and really don't give a shit about the actual, y'know, MUSIC or anything. I will likely check out both Matt & Kim and Spinnerette next time they come to town for a solo show, which is what I would have done anyway based on what I already knew about them prior to the festival. But if the purpose of NXNE is to give the audience a LIVE sample of each band and then deny the audience access, then what's the friggin' point??
The only NXNE-related thing I managed to see was a short film about Icelandic band Sigur Ros called "Vid Spilum Endalaust", ostensibly a document of the tour for their last album, but ultimately just a half hour arthouse home movie. I mean "home movie" literally, since the bulk of it looks as if it was shot on an old Super-8 or Super-16 camera, with some Sigur Ros music thrown on top. There are a few tantalizing behind-the-scenes glimpses of the band, but they're few and far between. If you're one of those people who think of Sigur Ros as epically pretentious rock weirdos, well you'll have plenty of evidence here. (Check out this classic Sigur Ros non-interview on NPR for more proof. Note to the Sigur Ros dudes: if you don't want to do interviews, that's fine, just don't agree to do them!). I'm a huge SR fan but this short film is more arthouse film than anything else, and a must see for hardcore fans only.
If you want to see a great Sigur Ros film, check out "Heima" (trailers here and here), a concert film that follows their tour of free concerts in their native Iceland in 2007. The film is packed with amazing live performances in a variety of venues, including an empty grass field (an all acoustic set to protest a hydroelectric dam being built), a rural community centre, an abandoned warehouse space, and a good old fashioned full-blown rock concert stage in Reykjavik. A great music film isn't just about concert footage, however, it's about the ever-elusive trick of marrying image and sound, and with a notoriously enigmatic band like Sigur Ros, it seems almost impossible. Director Dean Deblois (the director of animated feature "Lilo and Stitch" .... seriously!) pulls it off beautifully and finds the perfect visual metaphor for Sigur Ros's music in the stark, majestic landscape of Iceland and in the faces of its people, gorgeously shot by cinematographer Alan Calzatti. In my personal canon of concert films, this movie is up there with "Woodstock", "The Kids Are Alright" and "The Last Waltz" not just for the great tunes but for capturing a time and place so perfectly. Iceland does not look like a particularly warm inviting place, but after watching this flick, I so want to go there ... with Sigur Ros as my guide!
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