By Tiffany Yam
And with great anticipation, NXNE‘ers packed the small basement level Comfort Zone.

Paula kicked off the night with the classic beats of new-wave pop synth mixed with the groovy edge of lead singer David Carrier’s voice. His high hitters shook the stage followed by intermittent shout-outs to James Brown.

Second up was Montreal native dream-pop band Braids. If you weren’t won over by Raph’s sweetheart smile, her heavenly falsettos melting into the looped verses certainly would have done the trick. Braids filled an impressive set of dance-worthy tunes from Flourish//Perish. Songs like In Kind and Amends made you feel like floating and sinking simultaneously. They came and delivered.

Third to the stage was topless Sean Nicholas Savage, the greatest theatrical singer to grace NXNE. With arms raised towards the heavens, he sang songs from his new album Other Life with impassible conviction.

Last came Blue Hawaii, EDM duo Alex and Graph. Think Grimes stripped of folk and amped with true Ibiza-worthy techno. The set teased us with In Two Part II and then broke out in a full dance frenzy of high/low heavy drum rhythms. The pounding amp launched the glow-stick adorned crowd into free-spirited dancing.

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