We had a chance to check out Hard Fest in New York City over the weekend. The line up consisted of MIA, Sleigh Bells, Die Antwoord, Theophilus London, Rye Rye, Skream + Benga, Borgore, Destructo, 12th Planet, Nguzunguzu and Ninja Sonic. The musical acts, an island venue and the New York Summer heat broken by a torrential downpour in the final set of the night made for a formidable experience.

MIA headlined the festival with an eccentric set that seemed to cater to a minority of the audience. The head-bobbing crowd seemed slightly lost when she opened the show with what seemed like an orchestra of power drills. The DJ’s cuts, distortion and unconventional production seemed to make a show more for observing than participating.

Handsome favourites, Sleigh Bells, played a solid set as the sun set over Governors Island. A high stacked wall of Marshall amps were the perfect backdrop for the set as Miller shook the crowd with his shredding guitar riffs. Krauss was an excellent frontwoman, singing and dancing her way to a growing number of fans in the 10,000+ venue.

Die Antwoord stole the show with their theatrical stage presence, diminishing wardrobe and foul mouths (pictured). The combination of violent raps over blasting rave-appropriate beats sent a ripple of dancing from the front of the stage all the way to the dehydrated scenester kids at the bar. Ninja’s entertaining banter in between tracks and misleading lessons on South African culture were super entertaining. Aside from their antics, there was a clear message in the trios tracks; follow your dreams, no matter how obscure.

Here’s a couple of our favourite tracks from the day:

Download audio file (Rill-Rill.mp3)
DOWNLOAD: Sleigh Bells – Rill Rill

Download audio file (Die_Antwoord_-_Enter_the_Ninja.mp3)
DOWNLOAD: Die Antwoord – Enter The Ninja

The Ace Hotel is as cool as you’d expect after getting through all the media coverage of the boutique hotel. Attached to the hotel is The Breslin from the chef of The Spotted Pig. Inside you’ll find a lobby that rivals most bars and clubs in the city. The gift shop is a concept space from Opening Ceremony. What set things over the top was the Liberty Hall in the basement where Q-tip is the resident DJ on Friday nights.

We had a chance to check it out on Friday where Q-tip and friends played strong from 10pm until 4am. The Tribe front man played a phenomenal set in an accessible DJ booth. He went through stacks of vinyl bringing out samples from Led Zeppelin, The Bee Gees, Big Daddy Kane and James Brown. He took breaks to jam out to the DJs in between and pose for camera phone fan pics.

Q-tip played a super high energy set; our favourite part being his distinct voice and flow talking over tracks at times. Towards the end of the night he requested everybody who wasn’t dancing to the leave the club and got everybody up off the couches. Check it out for $10 on Fridays if you’re in the city. Just be ready to give back with some high energy participation.

Todd Barry opened the show with his style of unenthused delivery. He did a good job warming up the crowd for Aziz who was on the opposite end of the energy spectrum – yelling into the mic and falling to the ground during some entertaining storytelling.

Kanye West’s new single “Power” blasted over the speakers followed by a comically refined Ansari who was sporting black tie to the event. He tore through new material; his mic at times to sensitive for his high volume impressions of people including his cousin Harris, R. Kelly and an aggressive ad for a paid adult site.

He pulled a considerately short break for his encore and came out to material requests. A handful were accepted, a few denied. Sadly Raaaaaaaandy was not on the scene after he died in a volcano accident.

Just for Laughs took over the Yonge & Dundas area of downtown Toronto this weekend. Dundas Square had free stand up playing while Massey Hall and The Winter Garden Theatre had some big names rolling through including Demetri Martin, Russel Peters, Aziz Ansari and Louis CK.

Interesting leading facts: Demetri Martin left his career in law to pursue comedy at the age of 24. He started playing instruments at the age of 29 and is now 37 with an impressive repertoire of instruments – guitar, piano, keyboard and glockenspiel.

We had a chance to check out Demetri Martin host a showcase on Thursday which featured his relaxing style of comedy mixed in among sets from: Tim Minchin, Harland Williams, Gabriel Iglesias, Elon Gold and Tommy Tiernan.

Highlights included Martin’s classic incorporation of guitar and harmonica into his bit. Imagine being super relaxed by some Classical Gas style guitar mixed in with some Bob Dylanesque harmonica playing. Adding some calm, hilarious life observations on it was perfection. And yes Demetri, saying “surprise!” at a surprise party is the least surprising word choice. You nailed it.

Next year, head down to the area and check out some shows this weekend. Also a trip to the bar at the Pantages Hotel can prove to be eventful. During a visit there we bumped into Demetri Martin, Gabriel Iglesias and Sugar Sammy.

LCD Soundsystem played The Kool Haus in Toronto last night. The venue has been a temporary home to many of Handsome’s favourite bands, but LCD Soundsystem were the first band who seemed to redecorate the venue. Spot lights aimed at a massive disco ball were reminiscent of a homemade La Maitress De La Tour Eiffel. A disco ball never seemed so functional, casting rays of light over an enthusiastic crowd.

James Murphy and the band played a super extended set that lasted just under two hours. Highlight songs included Yr City’s a Sucker, All My Friends and Someone Great. The best part of the show was the closing ballad – New York, I Love You mashed with Jay-Z’s Empire State of Mind for an extra long and much appreciated exit.

Two extra special moments of the show came in-between songs, during Murphy’s bashful banter and thank-yous. The first was when Murphy had to “bring up something small”. His mini-speech was something along the lines of “I understand people want to take videos on their cell phones. I don’t have any issue with the video and if you want to put it up on YouTube or Facebook. Maybe people want a memento from the show? But what about being at the show? Actually enjoying being here…But then again, I’m kind of old.”

The second piece of advice came close to the encore. Murphy took a moment to address the issue of aggressive dancing at LCD Soundsystem shows. “This comes totally from a place of positivity. Enjoy the show, but every once in a while take a look at the people around you and see if they’re enjoying you enjoying the show. If there’s no girls around you this may be a sign.” Murphy then gave his point a little more thought. “…unless you came here with a crew of ten gay guys.”

Yeasayer played Lee’s Palace in Toronto on Saturday night. Opening act, Sleigh Bells, a rock n roll duo from Brooklyn could have been the most energy infused duo of all time. One half shredded on guitar while the other half switched up between melodic vocals and shrill screams combined with an aerobic workout on stage.

Yeasayer came out onto their set epitomizing Brooklyn cool. The set was made up of geometric shapes that lit up in different neon colours throughout the show and each member seemed to exemplify a distinct style of scenester fashion. A colourful one piece jumpsuit on guitar, a plain white scoop-neck tee and original tattoos on vocals, a beater and army boots on base, a fedora and plastic glasses on keys, and a snapback cap and cutoffs on drums.

The cool kids that filled the venue seemed hesitant at first as the band opened the show with The Children, a unsettling display of a cathartic robot voice pouring out of a human. The setlist made a consistent progression in the direction of more energetic tracks, more energetic musicians and dancing fans. High expectations of the show were exceeded, ratings of Odd Blood tracks were increased and dance moves were debuted by hundreds of well-dressed, sweaty kids.

Highlights of the show included ONE, Ambling Amp, Madder Red, I Remember and being fooled by their preliminary good-bye before an energetic encore. The band really delivered on their tracks with some record-perfect vocals as well as some gracious banter in-between tracks filled with praise of Toronto. If you have the chance to catch them on their North American tour, don’t hesitate.

Ricky Gervais was at Wembley Arena last night in London. The show had elements of Gervais’ classic themes of obesity (he has an interesting solution to the epidemic) and homosexual humour mixed in with his brutal, crude humour.

BUT what made the show just fantastic was his ongoing ability to entertain himself, and his reading/commentary of the classic Biblical tale, Noah’s Ark. Pages projected on the gigantic screen, Gervais questioned how Earth can have over 5 million species of animals when Noah’s Ark just probably wasn’t that big…His commentary of each sentence, the ambiguous relationship between God and Noah and dialogues between the animals was hilarious – 2 toucans discussing if they should walk or fly to the Ark – was stomach hurting funny.

Gervais is definitely something to see when he returns to London in September or during his upcoming North American tour.

Angels & Airwaves played a solid show last night at The Sound Academy in Toronto. Tom, the apparent front-man lead the band through a high energy and dramatic set. He was fueled by the crowd’s ruckus who chose “Tom” as their common chant over “AVA”. It was hard to take time to sympathize with the other band members as most were focused on Tom who debuted his newest dramatic hand gestures and interpretive dance moves.

The band stayed true to their positive message as Tom made sure to drop encouraging words and advice of pursuing dreams inbetween songs. One apparent change from their previous shows was the infiltration of Blink’s influence on Tom’s stage presence. His previously sobering AVA stage mentality was accented with booby jokes and a tongue flailing out of his mouth during his explanation of Love Like Rockets.

The band lived to their expectations and a similar vibe to their previous tours. Highlights and changes included a talking space computer and their new military jackets emblazoned with AVA crests and American flags. After several years of touring it was apparent the band had crowd-pleasing to a science. After Tom’s inspirational words and lyrics he closed the show emotionally singing out, “Torontoooooo kicks the shit out offfff….Vancouver.”

The venue filled quickly for an early concert – the doors opened at 5:30pm. The Alkaline Trio’s fans were not phased by the matinee status and showed up to the sold out show ready to go hard; 6 inch Mohawks, backwards white hats, tattoos and blazers converging in their Alkaline Trio fanship.

Matt Skiba and Dan Andriano traded vocals throughout the set as they ripped through tracks from their seven LPs. Skiba was an exceptional frontman in non-genre-subscribing attire. He came out with his tattoo sleeves contrasted by a Ralph Lauren polo shirt, cool kid glasses, and a poorboy hat. He shed his hat and glasses within the first two tracks as his inner rock-star seemed conflicted with his accessible looks. Older fans looking for Skiba’s signature shirt and tie live performance dress-code could find solace in his classic eyeliner.

The band played a great high energy set showing ample love to their older tracks as well as a few newer tracks from This Addiction. The crowd gave the band much love in different forms – mosh pits, index fingers in the air, and singalongs. The Trio reciprocated with sweat, wine consumption, banter and great renditions of This Addiction, Crawl, Sadie, Mr. Chainsaw and Radio.

Angels & Airwaves recently announced a forty day tour in promotion of their new album, LOVE. LOVE stays true to the classic AVA sound with content even more hopeful and epic than their previous releases. We’re big supporters of their vision and consistently positive message. Check out the album for download here. Hopefully it’ll keep you tied over until their outer space movie drops later this year. Here’s some insight from Tom on LOVE.

“We loved the idea of esoteric symbolism — geometric shapes hold an energy pattern. When a human looks at a shape, they instantly receive energy from their mind. So we reworked the geometric shape of the symbols in the word “love,” so when people see that word it instantly provides certain energy.”

Tour dates ahead.

3/27, Anaheim, CA (Verizon Wireless Theater / BAMBOOZLE FEST)
4/5, San Francisco, CA (Warfield Theatre)
4/7, Seattle, WA (Showbox SoDo)
4/8, Portland, OR (Roseland Theatre)
4/9, Vancouver, BC (The Vogue)
4/11, Edmonton, AB (Edmonton Events Centre)
4/12, Calgary, AB (MacEwan Hall)
4/14, Fargo, ND (The Venue)
4/15, Des Moines, IA (Val Air Ballroom)
4/16, Kansas City, MO (Uptown Theatre)
4/17, Milwaukee, WI (Eagles Ballroom)
4/18, Minneapolis, MN (Epic)
4/19, St. Louis, MO (The Pageant)
4/22, Columbus, OH (LC Pavilion (Promo West Pavilion)
4/23, Cleveland, OH (Time Warner Cable Amp at Tower)
4/24, Chicago, IL (Aragon Ballroom)
4/25, Cincinnati, OH (Bogart’s)
4/27, Detroit, MI (The Fillmore)
4/28, Toronto, ON (The Sound Academy)
4/29, Rochester, NY (Main Street Armory)
5/1, East Rutherford, NJ (Giants Stadium / BAMBOOZLE FEST)
5/2, Allentown, PA (Crocodile Rock Café)
5/3, Baltimore, MD (Rams Head Live)
5/4, Boston, MA (House of Blues)
5/6, Washington, DC (9:30 Club)
5/7, Philadelphia, PA (Electric Factory)
5/8, Wallingford, CT (The Dome Oakdale Theatre)
5/10, Norfolk, VA (Norva Theatre)
5/11, Charlotte, NC (The Fillmore)
5/13, Tampa, FL (The Ritz Ybor)
5/14, Miami, FL (Pompano Beach Amphitheatre)
5/15, Orlando, FL (Hard Rock Live)
5/16, Atlanta, GA (Tabernacle)
5/18, Houston, TX (House of Blues)
5/19, San Antonia, TX (Sunset Station)
5/20, Dallas, TX (Palladium Ballroom)
5/22, Denver, CO (Fillmore Auditorium)
5/24, Salt Lake City, UT (In The Venue)
5/25, Phoenix, AZ (Marquee Theatre)
5/28, Las Vegas, NV (The Joint)