NXNE 2017: Son Little at Portlands - Concert Photos

Son Little came from Philly to play future soul for the NXNE 2017 Portlands audience. I first saw Son Little at Hillside Festival in Guelph. Those photos are here.

Son Little play really good blues rock with funky grooves and cool guitar work. "Blue Magic" is a new song that just came out.

"Blue Magic"

"Lay Down"

"Your Love Will Blow Me Away When My Heart Aches"

"The River"

NXNE 2017 is almost here! Line-up for Portlands, Info on curated club series, GameLand and more!

It's coming up really soon! June 16-25 to be exact. It's the 23rd Annual North by Northeast music festival, more commonly known as NXNE or Northby. Yup, this year it's expanding to ten days, with a dynamic selection of music, gaming, comedy, and more. I hope to be there to capture all the action. Check out the coverage from last year, in case you missed it.
 
NXNE returns to the Port Lands for three days from June 23-25, 2017. NXNE Port Lands will include two main stages, art installations, sponsor activations, and comfortable places to chill between acts, as well as a comedy tent, and carnival rides.

This year's NXNE Port Lands music festival features: Passion Pit, Tyler the Creator, Post Malone, Bleachers, Sleigh Bells, The Soul Rebels featuring Talib Kweli, Twin Peaks, Cold Specks, Muna, Son Little and dozens more. NXNE's Club Land festival will feature the best up-and-coming bands as curated by some of Canada's best musicians.

"In it's first year the NXNE Port Lands saw thousands of attendees in two days," said Michael Hollett, President and Managing Director of NXNE. "Our growth and expansion for 2017 are based on the success of last year with cool programming from indie rock to hip hop to soul and much more each day."

Let’s hope they found a way to pipe in fresh water for this year!

New for this year is a curated club series featuring line-ups hand picked by Moe Berg of The Pursuit of Happiness, Ian D’Sa of Billy Talent, Brendan Canning of Broken Social Scene, Shad, Leah Fay of July Talk, Nick Rose, Tasha the Amazon, The Dirty Nil, Rural Alberta Advantage and Raina Douris from Indie 88 and CBC. These shows are Monday through Thursday at venues including The Baby G, The Garrison, Cold Tea, The Rivoli, The Dakota Tavern, Bovine Sex Club and The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern.

NXNE Game Land will kick off the 2017 Festival at Yonge-Dundas Square with a massive live e-Sports competition, new video game demos, interactive activations, and live music June 16-18, 2017.

From June 19-25, 2017 NXNE will host hundreds of new and established artists at over a dozen venues across the city for NXNE Club Land, including The Danforth Music Hall, The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern, and Adelaide Hall.

NXNE Game Land will present Canada's largest-ever, free outdoor e-Sports competition at Yonge Dundas Square.

Here are some of the artists I'm most looking forward to:

Sleigh Bells

Passion Pit

Yukon Blonde

Twin Peaks

Son Little

And some inspiration from the curators:

July Talk

The Pursuit of Happiness

Broken Social Scene

Hillside Festival 2016: A compendium of posts - Concert Pictures

I attended Hillside Festival on Guelph Lake Island on July 22. I thought it was a well-run, friendly festival on a beautiful site, that allowed me to see some great acts that I knew, along with a number of new discoveries. I'll definitely have this festival on my calendar for future years and I hope to be able to catch the full weekend in future.

Click through to the individual posts on each band I saw, and some photos from around the festival site. These posts include my thoughts on the performances, music by the artists and, of course, more photos.

The Milk Carton Kids

Pup

Ought

Son Little

Valley

Dizzy

Andy Shauf

Teen Violence

Photos from around the site

Hillside Festival 2016: Son Little - Concert Pictures

Philadelphia future soul singer-songwriter Son Little and his band performed on the Hillside Festival main stage last Friday. I enjoyed the band's bluesy rock tunes and the audience's reaction to their music including interpretive dance and a fascinated junior audience member.

Check out some of Son Little's music:

"All Wet"

"Toes"

"Lay Down"