As is now tradition, here are a series of quips and quotes overheard at the North By Northeast Music Festival in Toronto this past weekend...
:: "I'm on horse tranquilizers". - Henri Faberge
:: "We were told we'd never get played on the radio and never sell any records, so we said 'fuck that' and got played on the radio and sold a lot of records". - Jay Malinowski, Bedouin Soundclash, at the Town Hall meeting.
:: "I just stepped in barf AGAIN!!" - disgruntled music fan immediately in front of the Horseshoe Tavern.
:: "This is clearly the place to be at North by Northeast!" - Hawksley Workman, on stage at the Six Shooter Backyard BBQ.
:: "I can't just walk into a grocery store and put down a nickel for a pack of Smarties than are priced at a dollar!" - panelist at the Town Hall meeting griping about kids devaluing music.
:: "Yo!! Hat guy!! Chill! HEY! Hat guy! Chill out NOW!" - Ladyhawk bassist Sean Hawryluk to an out of control, hat-wearing audience-member slamming into women on the dance floor at the Horseshoe.
:: "That's the best live show I've seen in five years" - soaked music fan, leaving the dance floor immediately after Hey Rosetta's set.
:: "Jack Black is here and he has a massive beard". - Chris Kelly, at the Six Shooter BBQ.
:: "When we named the band Teenage Head we didn't know what it meant, we just thought it sounded cool". - Gord Lewis, Teenage Head, at the Town Hall meeting.
:: "I called my parents, my bandmates, and a few aunts and uncles". - Chris Murphy dealing with the fall-out from his National Post article.
:: "You have to bike 30 kilometres to work off the calories in one beer". - Chris Page, Camp Radio, shattering my theory that I was offsetting festival beer intake with a bike rental.
:: "Well now where the fuck am I supposed to park, eh?" - the road manager for Matt Mays, outraged at the size of the two CBC broadcast trucks behind the Horseshoe.
:: "Everytime I come to this town my eyes are as big as saucers". - Old Man Luedecke
:: "Are you Craig Norris?" - a fan talking to me at the Reverb.
:: "I'm going to release my next record on a really great Canadian label, but I can't say which one for a couple of weeks yet". - Gentleman Reg (pictured above with Hannah Sung).
:: "We have to wake up and realize that China is a massive untapped market for Canadian music". - Heather Ostertag, FACTOR President, Townhall Meeting.
:: "It was like Altamont out there". - Duffy Driediger, lead singer of Ladyhawk, referring to the Horseshoe audience.
:: "MATT!! NO!! STOP!!" - the road manager for Matt Mays, as the singer crunched their van along side of a telephone pole in a 40 minute attempt to try to squeeze out of the Horseshoe parking lot.
Photo by Connie Tsang
