North By Northeast, or NXNE for short, is one of the biggest music and art festivals in Canada. On top of the many wrist-band concerts and shows put on throughout Toronto every June, there is also a set of free concerts in Dundas Square, with different days dedicated to different genres. I’ve previously attended their…
Category: Concert Reviews
Concert Review: Classified & Maestro Fresh Wes at The Sound of Music Festival in Burlington, ON
The Sound of Music Festival has been one of the biggest music fests in my area for decades, and surprisingly this was only my first time attending as an adult. Many Canadian artists get to perform across ten stages by the lakeshore in Burlington over the course of a week; the free event I chose to…
Concert Review: The Roots at The 2014 Luminato Festival in Toronto + DJ Questlove at Tattoo
The Legendary Roots Crew, simply known as The Roots, have returned to Toronto for the first time in I don’t know how long. Those who follow me on Twitter already know I was really excited for this show. The first rap concert I ever went to was the 2009 Rock The Bells Festival in Los Angeles,…
Concert Review: Hopsin at the Kool Haus in Toronto
Hopsin is one of the better rappers to come out in the past five years. He’s been able to grow his fan base with his critically acclaimed 2010 album, Raw, his “Ill Mind Of Hopsin” Youtube series (with over 37 million views on Part 5), and most recently, his new Knock Madness album. He’s been…
Concert Review: The LOX at The Sound Academy in Toronto
Sheek Louch, Jadakiss and Styles P have each been to Toronto many times before, but this was surprisingly their first time performing here as a group. I had previously seen Sheek Louch perform in this same building a little over a year ago when he was on the Wu-Block tour with Ghostface Killah, but it…
Concert Review: Maestro Fresh-Wes & More at The Hard Rock Cafe in Toronto
This show came up last minute, but it’s hip-hop and it was free, so of course I’d check it out. I may be putting myself in an embarrassing position here, but going into this show I had not heard any full-length albums by any of the artists on the bill, with the exception of listening…
Concert Review: Redman at Rockpile East in Scarborough/Toronto
The first and last time I saw Reggie Noble, a.k.a. Redman perform was during the spring of 2013, when he tore down The Sound Academy with Method Man. That was the time when my glasses were destroyed because they got knocked off my face while I was helping carry Redman during his crowd surfing. It…
Concert Review: Snow Tha Product at Wrongbar in Toronto
I first got put on to Snow Tha Product’s music after her high-profile guest appearance on Tech N9ne’s Something Else album last year, which led me to her most recent mixtape, Good Nights & Bad Mornings 2: The Hangover. While I haven’t had a chance to go back and listen to her older work, this has been enough for…
Concert Review: Pusha T at the Danforth Music Hall in Toronto
Just two days after Shad and Brother Ali tore the house down, Pusha T came to the same venue to promote his debut solo album, My Name Is My Name. This was my first time seeing him perform, as I never even saw him back when he was making music with The Clipse. I pretty much…
Concert Review: Shad & Brother Ali at The Danforth Music Hall in Toronto
For the amount of time my blog has been active, I’ve probably written about Shad the most. He’s been on a roll lately; opening for Macklemore & Ryan Lewis throughout their Canadian tour, making a surprise appearance at the Manifesto Festival, hosting his new album release-day event in Toronto, and going on tour to promote…
The Top 10 Concerts I Attended in 2013
I know I’m a little late with this one, but let’s take a look at the top 10 shows I went to last year. I wrote a few concert reviews for some of them, but I missed a lot because I only had the idea to start this blog during the final quarter of the…
Concert Review: The Yeezus Tour (Kanye West + Kendrick Lamar) at The Air Canada Centre in Toronto
It’s been a while since I’ve been to a big stadium/arena sized concert like this. Previously, I had seen Kardinal Offishall perform in this same building during halftime at the Raptors’ 2011 season opener, but the only other actual concert I’ve been to that was this big (or even bigger) was in 2010, at the first…
SYpherSights 