Familiarize Yourself

So I left Chicago last night at Midnight with my partner-in-crime Ayisha to begin out North By Northeast adventures. After reaching the United States/Canada border at 6am, talking to the border patrol about the festival, and then leaving without them taking one look at our passports, we entered Canada and began the final mileage to Toronto.

One thing to know about our trip is we did decide to go the cheap route for this festival. We raided the grocery store for enough snacks to last the full 5-days, and we purchased the $50 wristband that will only get us into any of the club showcases. We are missing out on the panels that required a $250 festival pass, which for a group of college students on a cheap budget just wasn’t possible for this trip. 

So as we relax in our hotel room for the afternoon, we begin planning the night of club hopping. Right now we have a tentative grouping of Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head, The King Khan & BBQ Show, The Zoobombs (an awesome group from Japan), and the Burning Brides and the Black Lips if time allows. Everything goes until 3-4am, so after being up for the past 16 hours, a nap is neccessary to make it through this busy night.

Stay tuned for reviews of the shows tomorrow – and I’ll keep shooting bands your way to check out!

-AB

P.S. – After traveling for 10 hours we stopped to pick up our wristbands in downtown Toronto before checking into the hotel. This group of girls asked Ayisha and I what band we were in, and on further investigation we realized how gross we really looked.

For the rest of this weekend, if anyone else decides we look grimy enough to be artists again, we are now members of ABAJ, the girl DJ-duo from Chicago. Stayed tuned, big things coming.