NXNE Saturday: a day in the sun and a night at the Shoe

Michael Rault

My fourth and final day of the North by Northeast Music Festival took advantage of the sunshine and warm temperatures with several outdoor sets.

The first was by Toronto's Michael Rault, who I'd fallen hard for on his 2010 Ma-Me-O debut album and 2012 Whirlpool EP. His seven-song Living Daylight comes out this week and, while I like it, I don't find it as much fun as its predecessors. While he's still playing short love songs, the sound is a little more straight-forward rock than the '50s and '60s-influenced material that attracted me to him. I felt the same way about this performance at the St. James Park Gazebo, but will spend more time with the record and see Rault again the next time I get a chance.

Beach Day

Florida's Beach Day was my favourite discovery of last year's NXNE, so I was delighted when the quartet fronted by singer/guitarist Kimmy Drake took the stage after Rault. The set opened with an instrumental and the rest of it was filled with '60s-influenced girl group pop and garage rock that captured the park's summery vibe perfectly. The performance was nicely balanced between songs from the Trip Trap Attack debut ("Walking on the Streets," my favourite "Beach Day," "Boys") and those from the forthcoming Native Echoes ("The Lucky One," "I'm Just Messin' Around," "All My Friends Were Punks") before ending with a rousing cover of Bobby Freeman's "Do You Want To Dance."

I'm not really into the sand and surf lifestyle, but I'd be happy to make almost every day a Beach Day.

I stopped at Banh Mi Boys for a braised beef sandwich and kimchi fries that I took in with me to the patio that had opened on the street beside The Cameron House for the day. The delicious food was washed down with a recently released and not as tasty Brickworks Batch: 1904 cider.

Ferraro

Ferraro's Cosmo, Gianni, Tally and Tom Ferraro provided my dinner soundtrack with a set that incorporated covers (Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti," Michael Rault's "Let Me Go Out," The White Stripes' "Hotel Yorba,"   Dion's "Runaround Sue," The Chords' "Sh-Boom") with originals that slid in easily among them. Cameron House sound man Frank joined the young band for an entertaining rendition of his namesake Frank Sinatra's hit "That's Life."

A drunk punk who danced himself out of his pants and exposed his butt outside the fenced-off area kept hopping the railing and was very forcibly removed a couple of times by being thrown back over those same railings to provide a bit of drama before the next set started. I got a taste of Sam Cash on Thursday night and got the full experience with his three-piece backing band The Romantic Dogs at his label's party outside the Cameron House. 

Sam Cash

The group performed tunes from its Stand Together, Fall Together debut and quite a few new numbers in a 15-song set full of catchy, upbeat, well-written roots rock. Cash reprised "Steal My Car" from Thursday, showed off his whistling skills in "Fall Together" and proved overall that he's more than capable of producing songs that should be commercially viable. Again, like on Thursday, Cash was joined on stage by Cameron House Records artist Whitney Rose for a run through Bruce Springsteen's "Hungry Heart" to close things off.

I'd planned to see a couple of acts at The Paddock, but a friend inside the club caught my attention and I ended up chatting with him while sitting at the bar over a few pints while listening to a surprisingly eclectic-sounding set by Toronto rock act Zeus outside as background music via a nearby open window.

I'm a longtime Rheostatics fan, but haven't been as enamoured by former singer/guitarist Dave Bidini's Bidiniband project, although I like the songs live more than on record. I was also quite happy to hear him perform his old group's "Horses" when I arrived at the Horseshoe Tavern near the end of the set.

Joel Plaskett

I think Joel Plaskett is a national treasure and I've written about him frequently over the years. A group of friends share my affection, so we got together to sing along to almost every song from the frontman and his backing band The Emergency. The club was packed as the extended set opened with "A Million Dollars," and the momentum never waned through: "You Let Me Down;" "Precious, Precious, Precious;" "Penny For Your Thoughts;" "Deny, Deny, Deny;" "You're Mine;" "Through and Through and Through;" "Natural Disaster;" "Park Avenue Sobriety Test;" a solo acoustic "Harbour Boys;" "Rollin', Rollin', Rollin';" "Work Out Fine" mashed up with Lorde's "Royals," Manfred Mann's "Doo Wah Diddy" and Sam Cooke's "Cupid;" "Love This Town;" "Nowhere With You;" "Extraordinary;" and an encore composed of a new song and "Wishful Thinking."

If you like clever lyrics and irresistible hooks, but you've never seen The Joel Plaskett Emergency, I'm telling you to remedy that situation as soon as you can.

The Felice Brothers

The crowd thinned out considerably for a 1:20 a.m. performance by The Felice Brothers, who were supporting their new Favorite Waitress album, but those who remained were quite enthusiastic. My friends bailed and my energy was flagging, but I stuck it out because I've enjoyed the New York City quintet's take on folk, roots, rock and Americana every time I've witnessed it before. Violin and accordion were sometimes added to guitars, bass, drums and keyboards, there were some audience sing-alongs, and a couple of slower numbers were offset by some more kick-ass tunes to keep spirits raised.

The Felice Brothers were called back for an encore that included my favourite song of theirs, "Frankie's Gun," and a favourite of countless bands who I've seen cover it: Neil Young's "Rockin' In The Free World."

The bar was still serving, but I'd had my fill, so it was a walk home and then bedtime. While a handful of clubs were hosting bands on Sunday, my NXNE had come to an end.

Frank Turner and Joel Plaskett make great tag team

Frank Turner and Joel Plaskett Emergency, perhaps the best double bill that will hit Toronto this year, should have left no-one disappointed after Friday and Saturday night's performances. Even my friends who had people puking in the row in front of them at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre had a great time.

Turner filled England's Wembley Arena last month and is a bona fide star in his homeland while he continues to build his following around the world. His Toronto fan base is definitely growing and is undeniably loyal.

Frank Turner

Turner bounded on stage at 8:10 p.m. on Friday, admitting he didn't know what time it was since he'd just arrived from Australia to complete the last two nights of a lengthy world tour. He was on his own with his acoustic guitar and no band, but he has more than enough charisma on his own to compensate.

The set began with "I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous" and continued with 12 more songs from the breadth of much of his catalogue. People were singing and clapping along to most of them, including "Long Live The Queen" -- which I'm convinced is one of the best songs of this century.

Turner should be back at home in England by now and will soon start working on his next album. He previewed two songs that could be on it on Friday. The first was just finished that day and was getting its debut performance. It's still untitled, but is a relatively gentle song with lots of lyrics. The second newbie was "Wherefore Art Thou Gene Simmons?," a bittersweet yet humorous number about the KISS bassist's long, catalogued and photographed list of sexual conquests.

There were too many people in the theatre lobby during Turner's set, but I'm sure that he must have made believers out of a good portion of the Plaskett fans who might not have been familiar with him before. The man may have the worst tattoos in rock and roll, but he wears them proudly. I look forward to his Toronto return.
 
Joel Plaskett Emergency opened Canadian Music Fest with an invite-only gig high up in Toronto's CN Tower in March, and I thought that it was the most rocking and animated performance I'd seen from the group out of the dozen or more I've taken in over the years. There were certainly elements of that present on Friday night, but this was a much longer and varied set that also included a solo acoustic interlude where drummer Dave Marsh and bassist Chris Pennell got to take a break.

Joel Plaskett Emergency

Fans rushed the stage early in the set and almost all of the 1,200 people in the theatre were on their feet throughout the 110-minute performance. The loyalty and familiarity was evident with all of the singing along that went on, from "Tough Love" at the beginning to "Come On, Teacher" at the end.

I think I've probably thought of Plaskett as a songwriter first and foremost, even though I've never left one of his shows without having a good time. But this past weekend's shows reinforced that he's also a great guitarist and -- at age 37 and with seven studio albums to his credit since 1999 after the demise of former band Thrush Hermit, which released its first EP 19 years ago -- has become a complete entertainer who can totally charm a large audience.

Marsh and Pennell have combined with Plaskett to make the Emergency more muscular than it's ever been, and having "monkeys on a switch pedal" and a fedora-wearing bust of Wayne Newton on amplifiers near the back of the stage didn't hurt the entertainment value either.

Monkeys on a switch pedal

Both Turner and Plaskett knew that a lot of people would come to both the Friday and Saturday shows and they think enough of their fans that they changed their set lists so that if there was a favourite song you didn't hear one night, there was a good chance you probably would have heard it on the other night.

I was chastised for paying too much attention to my note-taking and photography on Friday night and not enough to the young hotties who were dancing beside and in front of me, but I'm pretty sure that the days of women half my age being interested in me are gone. Still, I elected to leave my tools of the trade at home on Saturday just in case I had one more kick in the can left in me. And what happened? I spent the night standing beside a young woman who I made cry about six years ago when she interned for me at ChartAttack.com and thought I was too tough on her performance assessment. So, needless to say, I didn't score that night either.

Joel Plaskett

But I attended a post-show party at the home of promoter Jeff Cohen (who was basking in his self-described "Bill Graham moment") and his hostess with the mostest wife Tara (my computer's auto-correct just changed mostest to moistest, but I thought I should change it back to avoid any potential gossiping). Turner didn't make it back to the house, but Plaskett and his crew and a lot of other friends did for hours of food, drinks, fellowship and falling into swimming pools. I took a traveller for my walk home and thought about how special the two nights I'd just experienced were until I arrived at my place at 5 a.m.

Here are the set lists from Turner and Plaskett's May 18 performances at Toronto's Queen Elizabeth Theatre:

Frank Turner
"I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous"
"Try This at Home"
"Peggy Sang the Blues"
"Wessex Boy"
"I Am Disappeared"
"Substitute"
New and still untitled song
"Long Live the Queen"
"If Ever I Stray"
"Wherefore Art Thou Gene Simmons"
"English Curse"
"I Still Believe"
"The Road"
"Photosynthesis"

Joel Plaskett

Joel Plaskett Emergency
"Tough Love"
"Waiting to be Discovered"
"Deny, Deny, Deny"
"You're Mine"
"Heartless, Heartless, Heartless"
"North Star"
"You Let Me Down"
"Harbour Boys"
"Beyond, Beyond, Beyond"
"Love This Town"
"Face of the Earth"
"Nowhere With You"
"Lightning Bolt"
"Work Out Fine" with interlude medley featuring Lee Dorsey's "Rain Rain (Go Away)," April Wine's "Oowatanite," The Rivieras' "California Sun," Manfred Mann's "Doo Wah Diddy," Sam Cooke's "Cupid" and Eagles' "New York Minute"
"Through and Through and Through"
"Maybe We Should Just Go Home" with interlude medley featuring Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love?"
"Extraordinary"
"I'm Yours"
"Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'"
"Come On, Teacher"

Joel Plaskett and Michael Rault get Canadian Music Fest off to a flying start

There wasn't a lot of quantity in what I took in on the opening night of Canadian Music Fest, but there was a metric tonne of quality.

Joel Plaskett Emergency played the opening night party in the Horizons Lounge in the CN Tower, 346 metres above the ground, and his 10-song set took us even higher. Plaskett's Scrappy Happiness comes out March 27, so he showcased a few tunes from it along with some should-have-been hits from his catalogue along with drummer Dave Marsh and bassist Chris Pennell.

Plaskett jumped right into the new material with "You're Mine," which name-checks and praises Husker Du, and followed it with one of the top tracks from 2009's Three, "Deny, Deny, Deny." Another new one, "North Star," showed that Plaskett hasn't lost his knack for literate and eminently listenable songs with clever phrases.

Plaskett returned to 2007's Ashtray Rock and "Snowed In," and the irony didn't escape the artist considering the record-breaking high March temperatures Toronto has experienced this week. "Nothing More To Say" from the same album continued the roll the band was on before Frost and Pennell took a break while Plaskett played new song "Harbour Boys" solo on 12-string acoustic guitar.

The rhythm section returned for Scrappy Happiness opener "Lightning Bolt," which featured some fuzzed-out guitar and Plaskett getting more animated than I've seen him for quite a while. That manic energy continued through "Work Out Fine" and what was supposed to be his final number, "Nowhere With You." That one got the primarily music industry member crowd so riled up, however, that it demanded an encore. Plaskett didn't disappoint and delivered a killer "Come On Teacher," which earned a well-earned rousing round of claps and hollers as the group left the stage.

I look forward to seeing Plaskett again when he returns to Toronto for two nights in May as part of his cross-country tour with Frank Turner. That's a double bill you won't want to miss if it rolls through your city.

I returned home to drop off my car and take care of a few things before venturing a few blocks west to the basement of The Great Hall for a 9:30 set by Michael Rault, an Edmontonian who now lives in Toronto but doesn't perform locally as much as I'd like him to.

Michael Rault

Rault's Ma-Me-O debut album came out of nowhere to finish at #7 on my favourite albums of 2010 list, but I'd never seen him until tonight. The album is full of great hooks, '60s-influenced pop and garage rock that's uncomplicated but engrossing. I'm happy to report that the singer/guitarist's performance -- augmented by a rhythm section and a female tambourine player and backing singer who was largely inaudible -- bears those same qualities.

Like Ma-Me-O, the set opened with "Let Me Go Out" and "The Things You Said," which drew some impressive dancefloor action. Other favourites from the album included "Call Me On The Phone," "You Can Leave If You Want To" and "She'll Cut You Down." Also like Ma-Me-0, the 30-minute set left me wanting to hear more.

Hopefully Rault's association with the Pirates Blend label and management team and the Paquin Entertainment booking agency can raise his profile because I'm convinced that others will fall for his charms just like I have.

It was just 10 p.m. and there was lots of music left to be heard, but I'm still recovering from a hectic South By Southwest Music Festival and just returned home from Texas on Tuesday evening and immediately returned to the 9 to 5 world. I also knew that it wouldn't be possible to hear anything better than Plaskett and Rault, so I called it a night and went home to catch up on a few things that had been neglected during my 10 days in Texas.