The Ultimate Guide To NXNE 2008 and a Review of “The Hulk”
Posted by Chris on June 15, 2008 @ 8:44pm
Dear Track Teamers,
I went to Toronto this weekend to visit with Steve Palmer. We decided to hightail it with some friends to check out the North By NorthEast Music Festival in the city that Al Waxman, Harry Rosen, and Eugene Levy think is the center of the universe. I’ve decided to give you the lowdown on what is one of the coolest music festivals in Canada. In many ways, this is the counterpart festival to the famed South By Southwest Music Festival. I wasn’t dissapointed.
We arrived and settled, and decided to catch some food at the famed Duff’s Wings. I initially thought that Duff McKagan from Guns’N'Roses had opened a wing joint, and was secretly hoping that we’d be served a pound of them while mentally air-guitaring to “Mr. Brownstone”. I’ve never had wings like this. The have a degrees of hotness with the wing sauce that is measured by something scientific called the “SHU”, short for the Scofield Heating Unit. Once the scientific stuff is introduced, and you realize that there is more to degrees of chili heat besides mild, medium, hot, and “suicide”…like every other sports bar in the world, then you begin to get curious. We had some standard fare at this place, but I asked for a small bowl of what they call “Armageddon”. To get an idea of how hot this wing sauce is…check this out. Here’s some perspective…HOT is about 100,000 Scofield Heating Units. “Armageddon” is about 850,000 Scofield Heating Units. It is very hot. I’m not sure how they harvested this wing sauce from the surface of the sun, but it’s painful. I slightly dipped a french fry in this hell, and the potato practically evaporated.
Our first stop was the Horseshoe Tavern where we caught opener Julie Dorion of Eric’s Trip and the headliner, Evan Dando. Julie was good…if you’ve never heard of her music, it’s a darker version of Feist, but I was looking for a bit of a pickmeup and found it a bit slow. We spotted Mike Keenan in the audience wearing a complete jean outfit and the niftiest pair of Sonny Crocket leather slip ons I’ve ever seen. After Julie closed her set, Evan Dando came on, looking very haggard, and sporting a beat up Gibson acoustic guitar. He proceeded to play a pretty stripped down acoustic version of Lemonheads classics like “It’s A Shame About Ray” and others…I pictured Johnny Depp from the video kicking back a Henieken in the club with us.
As we left the Horseshoe, a torrential rain began to shower us. We grabbed some Chinatown newspapers and hightailed it to the Silver Dollar Room to catch The Oholics. Didn’t really dig them that much. Stayed for about 30 minutes, and took a sip of a Black Russian. A drink I realize that I cannot ingest. After determining that…we gingerly quickstepped next door to the newly refurbished El Mocambo, where we proceeded to get ready to witness greatness. Canada’s loudest band, and what I consider to be one of the best rock shows I have ever seen, ever. Period. Conclusion. Montreal’s BIONIC. They raped my ears, and blew my face off. This band is so killer, that I recommend wearing earplugs unless you’re into being killed by riffs and amp buzz. So awesome. If you’re more into an act like Duncan Sheik, this would not have been the place for you to be.
Next night, we checked out ex-Ottawa natives, Clothes Make The Man. My band…The Setbacks, who are currently on hiatus because of our lead singer’s liquid paper addiction, played with CMTM often. I’ve always found them awesome, but the show that I caught at the Bovine Sex Club this night was almost like a re-introduction to the band that made me realize how talented a bunch of songwriters these guys are. They are totally awesome, and I can say that this music is something I am totally into right now. They rule. Check them out. Went back to The Silver Dollar Room later on in the night to catch Slim Twig. Interesting act, if you like rockabilly meets David Byrne, but I was pretty tired by the end of the night, and was getting ready for the high tail back to Ottawa at 5 a.m.
Besides the awesome music…I managed to check out “The Hulk“, the new feature film from the newly formed Marvel Studios. This is considered a reboot of Ang Lee’s take on the popular green giant. The industry generally considered the first movie adaptation of the comic book to be a major flop. It grossed 132 million dollars at the box office. Respectable numbers, but low grade considering the expectations that studio executives had for the film, especially with it’s 100+ million dollar price tag.
The new one features Ed Norton as Bruce Banner, Liv Tyler as Betty Ross, Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky/The Abomination, and Academy Award Winner William Hurt as Thunderbolt Ross. Tim Roth rules. He’s just got that cool factor that guys like Gary Oldman have. You can tell he’s a badass in real life to some degree. The movie is good overall. A solid 3 stars. It’s “comictainment”. My term for the direction that Marvel seems to be steering it’s movies now. They’re delivering good bang for the buck films that don’t dissapoint with the special effects. A cool thing about this movie was the cameo from RDJ as Tony Stark. It alludes to the Avengers movie coming out in two years.
I was wondering if we could pick up where those
virginsguys outside the theatre left off their conversation… I believe they were debating the Hulk’s ability to tear through Iron Man’s suit and whether or not he would have the strength required to apply the necessary stress to the titanium metal in order to induce fatiguing and cause breakage. Also, have any of you guys ever seen a breast in real life?That was an important part of the story that was omitted. Every single on of these movies that I see, it always seems to be the same thing…discussions about the science of these fabricated superheroes, and their abilities. The Hulk vs. Iron Man in real life…who would win. WHY discuss this?
It’s because you need to stop going to movies that super nerds go to on the first weekend. Yes, I am insinuating that you are a nerd.