NXNE

I never understood some peoples dislike towards the North By Northeast festival. The only real complaint that's worthwhile is the fact that it's really busy, but shit, it's not like your lining up outside some club waiting to pay $15 to listen to Top 40 crap and hoping some chick grinds up against you enough to feel her pooder on your thigh... But I digress. Personally, I just don't think you can get a better deal then $30 for three nights of killer bands. And furthermore, I didn't wait in line once this year, because seriously, if there is a line, you just move on to the next venue.

My NXNE weekend started on Thursday night with the main purpose being to check out White Cowbell Oklahoma at the legendary Horseshoe Tavern. They didn't start until 2am, so I set out with my friend to check out whomever we saw fit. We both agreed on hitting up the Velvet Underground first to check out Tokyo, Japan's Moja. We both took the stance that these guys came all the way from Japan, so we might as well go see 'em. They are very White Stripes, but with just bass and drums. Very interesting to watch and most excellent to listen to. We then went and watched Hell Yeah, Fuck Yeah and a bunch of random bands from there, one of which threw a banana at me when we were at the Bovine Sex Club. That was pretty cool. But soon enough we were off to the Horseshoe for White Cowbell.

If you've never seen White Cowbell Oklahoma, do yourself a favour and check them out. They are probably one of the coolest stage shows out there right now; almost reminiscent of an Alice Cooper experience. At times, the music plays a secondary role to the strippers, security guards, chainsaws, and whatever other madness is going on around you. It wasn't all great, as some douchebag decided to punch my roommate in the head. My roommate Matt had met up with us to check out White Cowbell and this dude, who was a friend of a friend of a friend, was just an angry drunk. I broke up three prior fights with this dude and other people at the show. Once he hit my roommate though, I was ready to kill him. I ended up leaving because I'm generally not a violent man, but got convinced to come back in for the rest of the show. Overall though, first night was good.

NXNE was suppose to end there for me. I did get free wristbands through work, so I wasn't all that worried about it. But my plans for Friday night fell through and I knew there was only one thing I could do to make up for it... Go out and watch Moneen! I headed to the El Mocambo after making a quick stop at the Pub with some co-workers and heading home to change after work. I got there just as the rain really started pouring down and in time to catch Moneen. My roommate, co-worker and I were apparently the ones responsible for the mosh pit, but as always, the Moneen fans proved to be incredibly friendly and all about the party. The El Mo was actually leaking water due to the thunderstorm outside and there was a few times where the PA was cutting out on Kenny. However, I don't think there was one word missed lyrically, as the crowd was singing along for every single thing.

The Black Lungs were up next, which is Wade MacNeil's (Alexisonfire) solo/side project. To be honest, maybe it was because I was so drained from Moneen by this point, but I was a little dissapointed with The Black Lungs. I really dig "Send Flowers" but for some reason the album just didn't translate well for me. They weren't bad by any means, but it just didn't grab me like I had hoped.

Closing the show was Bedouin Soundclash, who I always find entertaining. Nothing terribly exciting to report, but they were good as usual. I always recommend checking Bedouin out if you get a chance.

Now before I finish, I have to talk about one last band whom I saw on Saturday. Judging from other blogs I've read, it seems like Monotonix really stole the show this year. These Israeli rockers, from what I understand, have pretty much been banned back in their home country. It's not hard to understand why, as these guys put on the craziest show around. They set-up on the floor in front of the stage and literally tore the fucking roof down.



As you can see from the pics, they spent more time being crowd surfed while playing then they did on the ground. And since they've been banned from almost every Israeli club back home, I have a feeling we'll be seeing them around here more and more. At least until they get banned here too.