NXNE: Night Two
Spiral Beach, ok city ok, Cauterize, and Arise and Ruin.

By Sam Linton

Posted June 25th, 2007.

Ooooooh, my second day of coverage taught me a valuable lesson. You can commit to three days of reviewing or you can dance, but you shouldn't do both if you want your neck to feel anything remotely close to okay in the morning. Nonetheless, coverage was covered, though not as totally as on day one.

8 PM @ Kathedral
Arise and Ruin
A bad time to have a neck cramp indeed, with the first bona fide metal act of my NXNE experience. You try to avoid banging your head even just a little at a metal show. It's hard! Anyways, Arise and Ruin is a fairly typical metal band, as they go. Drum lead, with two guitars, bass and a death-style vocalist, they offer a fairly archetypical metal sound, continuing my streak of opening my nights with fairly generic sounding bands. What else is there to say? Despite my seemingly snide dismissal, the band does have its selling points. Singer and frontman Ryan Bauchman is appropriately animated and aggressive as befits a metal vocalist, and the entire band has stage presence. And they were enough to whet my metal tooth for more. What a debacle that turned out to be - I'll get to it next… Arise and Ruin have both a websiteand a Myspace.

9 PM @ Kathedral
Cauterize
Well, at this point I had originally intended to leave for the Rivoli to cover The Blood Lines, but my aches disagreed and most of my other gigs were in the Big Bop complex anyways. Besides, I wanted some more metal, so I checked who was up next. Cauterize. Never heard of ‘em, but that sounds like a respectable name for a metal band, yes? Unfortunately, it's just as respectable a moniker for an emo band to sport. I know what you're thinking, “oh, emo bashing. That's original, Sam Linton. Really taking a creative risk, you are.” I'm a postmodern guy, so I don't generally like to say I like or dislike any particular genre, but I believe that I have made clear in my previous reviews that I like a certain amount of joie de vie in my music, so when a genre pretty much exists to complain, chances are I won't score it very highly. Nonetheless, it's embarrassing to admit how long it took me to catch on to what I was listening to. I mean, right away I could tell it wasn't metal, although I will say that the band were proficient musicians; I'd go out on a limb and say that they would make an alright instrumental band. The singing ruined it for me, though. Although the band played loud, muffling the lyrics, the singer had perfected the disaffected whine that is the trademark of emo. It still took me a while to place the genre, as I could immediately recognize the style of singing as something vaguely familiar, but not as anything specific. Once they hit a quiet number and the lyrics came through, however, it was all over for me. I stayed through the set as I had already committed myself, but my heart was at the Rivoli where it belonged. Cauterize probably also has a Myspace.

10 PM @ Holy Joe's
ok city ok
Putting my last show behind me, I headed to the Big Bop's upstairs and the intimate coziness of Holy Joe's. It was a pretty much packed room, all here for Tokyo's own ok city ok, a three piece fronted by expatriate American Randy Grace. Opening their show with a thrilling promise of “special effects”, ok city ok delivered both visually and aurally (but more aurally) with a spooky headset light trick at the start of their set and with distorted, funky guitar sounds throughout. Another painful set for my neck cramp (but not my sensibilities), it was hard to keep from rocking to the thick, chunky bass notes, wailing guitar and wandering drums, so I didn't. The band's presence was really something to be seen, and I can only hope that all their shows have the same energy. Each member seems to exist in their own musical bubble, doing their own thing, which only by sheer coincidence happens to perfectly complement the things of the other band members, imbuing them with a harmonious equality. The band's humour, a key factor in whether or not I enjoy a band, is also highly on display. From song titles like “I Wanna be Your Lawyer” and “I Wanna be Your Enraged Husband” to introducing each song as a new type of love song, the band's quirkiness was on full display, nicely complementing the band's style of play. In case it isn't obvious, I immensely enjoyed this band's performance, and would recommend catching them if that becomes remotely possible for anyone in the next while. What with them being based in Japan, however, I fear that catching another North American show may not be possible for some time. Don't despair though! ok city ok has both a website and a Myspace.

11 PM @ Reverb
Spiral Beach
Moving on from the joyful noise of ok city ok, I hopped down the stairs of the Big Bop to Reverb to catch one on my favourite local groups, the art rock cool kids of Spiral Beach. Playing with a full stage set of Christmas lights and smoke bombs, Spiral Beach was all about the performance, sometimes at the expense of the music. Let me state for the record that I love this band, so everything I say is done in the spirit of constructive criticism, and for the premier part of the show, the music was great - a raw, more angry sound than they usually sport, but I was totally into that. The bass, drums, guitar and even keyboard seemed to growl rather than ring out the jams, as per their usual, and it was exciting. However, Spiral Beach does have a tendency towards the self-indulgent (something I like in moderation and often enjoy about their shows), and it was out in force that Friday, not aided by the technical problems that apparently arose back in the booth. On another note, there are the diehards: the revelers who come to every Spiral Beach show. Now, one wouldn't expect Dionysius to manifest without his loyal Bacchante, and I know that a Spiral Beach show just wouldn't be the same without them, but at times like last Friday, they can have a very polarizing effect on the rest of the crowd, clearly dividing the audience into a “you” and “us” mentality, rather than the unified “we” of all the best shows. Anyways, all in all, a great band, but not one of their best shows. If all my bitching seems to cast the band in a negative light, I would advise you to check out the songs on their Myspace to see why I forgive them stumbles like Friday night. After all, to err is human, to Rock, Divine. Spiral Beach plan to launch their next album in September.

12 PM @ Streetcar Stop
To get back home
I had originally planned to stay longer on the second night of NXNE, but circumstances, including my aches from the previous day and, more importantly, the departure of a dear friend the following morning compelled me to leave earlier than I had originally planned. I can only hope that MONDO's readership is more forgiving than the wrath I anticipate at the hands of editors.

I remain, your faithful and rocking servant,
Sam Linton

Next: Day 3!