Canada makes me feel like I'm in the Truman Show a little bit. The billboard advertisements are less aggressive, the ketchup is sweeter, the edges of everything are just a little softer than in New York. The NXNE music festival in Toronto, however, has proven anything but soft so far. Quite frankly, it rocks. I wanted to ease in so I started my first Canadian festival experience with a panel called "Wheel of Fortune/Misfortune: Conversations About Music & Stuff," which included stories of everything from stalkers to police stings and one-too-many rock star pissing on their manager's desk stories. Then I was onto a private a cappella showcase from Aussie-based singer-songwriter Washington, which gave me an unexpected bout of goose-bumps. Megan Washington's smoky voice belted out Roxette-tinged nostalgic pop songs (she referenced both Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe as well as "Comin Round the Mountain") on a keyboard that was almost as large as her for an audience of eight.

After a phenomenal bowl of Pho in Chinatown I was off to The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern to catch two much-buzzed about bands. The first was the Tennessee-based trio Royal Bangs, who whipped the whole audience into a frenzy with their electronic tinged garage rock. They were fantastic live, looking like the most normal of hipsters (one of them was wearing a gingham shirt!) and giving off an air of honest eagerness, they made me want so much more of their quiet-loud-quiet-loud 90's vibe, soaring vocals and strong rhythms. They were followed by the tremendous PS. I Love You, an experimental power-pop group headed by the colossal (both in vocal power and physicality) Paul Saulnier who, in a very polite and shockingly delicate speaking voice asked the sound guy to "please feel free to add any distortion you want to
my vocals." Distort they did as Saulnier and drummer Benjamin Nelson delivered an epic set loud enough to keep my ears humming all the way home.