NXNE Day 1 – HEALTH, King Khan, United Steel Workers of Montreal, The Burning Hell, Spooky Ruben
The Horseshoe was near-empty when we arrived around 8pm. A screen on the side of the stage was showing a quirky music video seemingly unrelated to the events coming up but was successful at getting people out of their chairs and onto the floor. 9pm rolled around and the first act, Spookey Ruben, took the stage. Spookey Ruben was … not so spooky. He supposedly got his name during his teenage metalhead days but those days are evidently long gone. Spookey Ruben was nothing short of adorable. His buttery-smooth, sometimes-falsetto voice sang indie pop tunes of humour, unrequited love, and food. His set was a little gimmicky but I totally fell for it. During “Rachel”, Spookey sang into an old telephone receiver, urging the crowd to show their enthusiasm for the hypothetical girl on the other end.
Just Another Way by Spookey Ruben
Next up was The Burning Hell, who was also much less intimidating than their name suggests. The Burning Hell is features frontman Mathias Kom and up to fourteen rotating musicians. Last night, I counted two violinist, an accordion, a harmonica, drums, a few guitars, and a banjo(?). Like Spookey Ruben, The Burning Hell was full of humourous tunes with frequent mentions of a rabbi which somewhat confirmed my theory that Kom was dressed that way because he didn’t have time to change after synagogue.
The Things That People Make by The Burning Hell
By the time United Steel Workers of Montreal took the stage, the floor was comfortably filled. The six-piece alt-country band is signed to Weework, the same label as The Burning Hell. Near the end of their set, Gern F was scarily similar to an evangelist as he banished Satan from my friend’s body. I’m hoping that was sort of tongue-in-cheek.
Jesus We Sweat by United Steel Workers of Montreal
King Khan was the real treat of the night. While setting up, he was wearing a red tshirt that was soon replaced by a turban, gold cape, and sort sort of shawl name of metal ringlets. The crowd went absolutely insane for him. While people were mostly just bopping along or tapping their feet for United Steel Workers, the floor turned into a straight-up moshpit for King Khan. Khan basked in the enthusiasm and played the longest set of the night (just over an hour).
Torture by King Khan and The Shrines (ed. note: I’m having issues with mp3s so I know it was King Khan and the BBQ)
As 1am rolled around, I was starting to get weary and anxious about missing the subway home. HEALTH took ages to set up because of all their synthesizers and other beep-bloop machines. I was introduced to HEALTH with their 2007 album with Crystal Castles and was concerned that they wouldn’t hold their own without Alice Glass’ shrill vocals. (Jupiter Keyes’ “ironic” Nickelback t-shirt didn’t really inspire much confidence either.) But my worries subsided when they finally started playing. Surprisingly, the moshpit died down for the LA noise band. I couldn’t stay for the whole set but I will say that HEALTH gave the best physical performance of the night (so far). No one wants to see noise rockers placidly standing around strumming their guitars and HEALTH definitely knows this.
Heaven (Narctrax Remix) by Health
[...] To enter NxNE Day 1 Chang A Lang, Give us the Daggers Live @ The Silver Dollar Room Day one oNXNE Day 1 – HEALTH, King Khan, United Steel Workers of Montreal, The Burning Hell, Spooky Rub… The [...]