2013

Ottawa acts heading to Toronto for NXNE 2013

by Matías Muñoz

06/12/2013

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I’m currently on the bus to Toronto where NXNE is kicking off its 19th year. It’s a little daunting – around 1,000 bands, countless venues, super late bar hours, and the prospect of joining thousands of other music lovers at Yonge-Dundas Square. But more than anything, it’s exciting. Getting to see some of my favourite bands in the world play this week is pretty cool, and also seeing some new ones that could potentially become a new favourite.

It is kind of bittersweet though. Last year around this time when NXNE 2012 was in full swing, we had made the trip down to Toronto to see Radiohead. Of course, that never happened due to the stage collapsing. While the misfortune of that day was pretty tough to take in, we still made the most of it with beer, tequila (lots of it), and barbecue. Since we were all the way out by Downsview that day, no one really wanted to go downtown to see The Flaming Lips. Plus we were pretty emotional about what happened, both because of the death of their drum tech, and because seeing them live is something you look forward to for a long time.

Well now that NXNE is once again upon us, we’ll give a little rundown of the Ottawa bands/writers/comedians at the festival this year. And there are some good ones.