Will Wiesenfeld is delightful. This is obvious after only a few minutes in his presence. Earlier in the day, he’d suggested via text that we meet at 4:30 at the venue in Toronto he was performing at that night as part of NXNE at The Phoenix Theatre. I texted back, “Make it 4:20 and we have a deal,” nervous about whether he would appreciate the joke.
  The fog descended slowly, the coloured lights piercing through it, shining Will Wiesenfeld’s face with their glow as he thrashed around the stage in a way you might not necessarily expect him to. The thing about music festivals, especially one that mostly takes place at various venues in downtown Toronto, is that sets are universally short and one of many in the area.
There are moments in life where you completely zone out from everything around you. In moments like these, the world is yours. Take advantage of these situations as often as you can. I experienced this sort of euphoria during my Saturday excursion of North By Northeast. I’ll get back to that.
Pitchfork is a great website, eh? No matter how much flack the Pitchforkians receive for their sometimes unforgiving reviews, they know where the real talent is at. Last night, House of Vans, Pitchfork, and NXNE teamed up for a head-scratching night of performances at Berkeley Church. It was a celebration of the diversity of music.
Finding your footing at Toronto’s inaugural North By Northeast festival is never easy in the beginning. With more than 20 venues across the city each serving their unique brew of talent, deciding on where to go can be a daunting task. I chose The Danforth Music Hall for my first NXNE encounter.
[heading size=”20″ align=”left”]Angel Olsen | 9pm, Mod Club Theatre, June 20th[/heading] Slow burning songs are hard to perfect. Angel Olsen is one of the few who have mastered making music that is drawn-out and eerie. Her ominous folk compositions make for the ideal creepshow. Her show is guaranteed to be a treat to the ears while the instrumentation with shake you to your core.