{"id":11903,"date":"2010-06-19T12:00:02","date_gmt":"2010-06-19T16:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=11903"},"modified":"2013-01-21T14:56:14","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T19:56:14","slug":"rock-and-reflection-at-the-cn-tower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2010\/06\/19\/rock-and-reflection-at-the-cn-tower\/","title":{"rendered":"Rock and reflection at the CN Tower"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Toronto writer Helen Spitzer was at the pre-NXNE show at the CN Tower, where she met musicians and music fans who see Toronto in new and surprising ways. Here’s her dispatch from atop the city.<\/em><\/p>\n

My day this past Wednesday began with turning down a free Porter flight to Montreal, and ended with a magnificent night of rock at the top of the CN Tower in Toronto.<\/p>\n

Truthfully, I could have used a mid-week fling with another city to refresh my love of this one, but rock shows at the tower are a rare and legendary occurrence: witness Spiritualized\u2019s \u201chighest show ever\u201d back in 1997. I missed that moment. Sticking around offered me another chance to be part of music history in this city.<\/p>\n

Like a lot of the wide-eyed music fans in the Horizons lounge at the un-rock hour of 6 o\u2019clock, I am as giddy about the unfettered view of Toronto as I am about the bands playing: spunky new arrivals the Balconies; Manotick-via-Montreal\u2019s Hollerado and veteran locals the Meligrove Band. It is glorious to be ushered through the mercifully short security line and past a gaggle of 40 eight-year olds to the designated show elevator \u2014 the only one looking directly out over Lake Ontario. \u201cEnjoy the view,\u201d smiles our young operator, clearly pleased that the staid tower is busting loose for the night. \u201cMy elevator is the best one.\u201d I enjoy her sense of ownership of the elevator, and her obvious pride. She doesn\u2019t regard the tower as pompous and uncool, like my friends and I did in our 20s. Our elevator operator is of the generation of the Lit-Up Tower.<\/p>\n

The show itself is symbolic of the current generation taking on Toronto on their own terms. The tower they grew up with is not the dorky, over-hyped symbol of my 80s childhood. In their Toronto, the tower is part of the backdrop, just one of many things that make the city something you want to explore. When the CN Tower began to light up three years ago, it was reflecting back this new wave of city-love. Look around, it suggested. Get hungry, discover more. Stop apologizing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Of course, getting into this severely restricted-capacity show is a feat in itself. Sari Delmar of AudioBlood, the hosts, has had to charm skittish CN Tower management over a period of seven months to make the show a reality. Clearly the headaches are worth it. Though the crowd is sparser than necessary, everyone in the room is giddy to be there. At 6:45pm most people, performers included, are pressed to the glass enjoying the golden light settling over the island. We\u2019re immediately rewarded with a view of a plane landing on the mind-bogglingly short airport runway.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst thing I did when I got here was lay on the glass floor!\u201d says Jacquie Neville, vivacious guitarist and singer of The Balconies. Their early set of stripped-down minimalist rock and disco bass has set the bar high. Afterwards, we walk the length of the windows and beyond the lounge to check out the OCAD building. \u201cYou can\u2019t see our house from here,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019re east-enders.\u201d The Balconies are young, and have only been Torontonians since September. Neville hasn\u2019t yet been to the island. We gaze down on the Roundhouse where they recently played, observing that much of the waterfront seems designed to be seen from above.<\/p>\n

I next encounter Alysha Haugen and Magali Meagher, of local Weezer tribute band Sheezer. Haugen, also a grassroots show promoter, surprises me by saying this is her third time here this year. \u201cI\u2019m from Saskatchewan,\u201d she explains, adding the tower is the destination of choice when family visits. She turns and gestures north across the city; I notice all the trees. \u201cThe sprawling expanse of Toronto will always blow my mind,\u201d she says. She and Meagher have been watching the planes since they arrived 20 minutes earlier. \u201cI used to live in a house where people were preoccupied with potential disaster,\u201d Meagher says, \u201cand we did this calculation if the tower were to fall over whether our house would be crushed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her words ring in my head as Hollerado begin their frenetic set. I start to think about our precarious position, 553.33 metres in the air, especially as members of the band climb their amps and play from the window ledges. My mild unease is echoed by Randy Lee, formerly of the Bicycles, now violinist with Jim Guthrie and Lily Frost, and there as a guest of the Meligrove Band. He recalls being terrified during a childhood trip to the tower. \u201cI\u2019m still kind of terrified,\u201d he admits. It\u2019s at this point the rock show seems to loosen up the room: Hollerado\u2019s classic grubby rock demeanour contrasts the stiffness of the uniformed servers, and highlights the gleeful absurdity of the setup. The band starts to somehow look right framed in the window against the drapes and the brilliant blue sky.<\/p>\n

As the sky finally begins to darken, I take a walk around the perimeter with Stuart Berman, fellow music scribe and frontman of The Two Koreas. He guides my eye west along the rail lines, past where the tracks split and stopping at his condo. \u201cAt first we had a view of the whole tower,\u201d he says, \u201cbut then that other building went up.\u201d I\u2019m reminded that thousands of Torontonians sees the city this way \u2014 not from the height of the tower but from the balconies of their highrise buildings. I\u2019m always surprised to see rooftops, whether from the AGO stairwell or the top of a building, but most of Toronto is growing vertically, at the city\u2019s edges. From the 21st floor Berman can look both north and south \u2014 and down to the great swath of the Gardiner below. \u201cI find it soothing,\u201d he says. \u201cI did grow up near the 401. Highways are underappreciated for their calming effects.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the Meligrove Band\u2019s blistering set I head to the eastern edge of the lounge, as the financial district below falls dark. Randy Lee conquers his queasiness and turns in some vicious violin licks. I spend much of the set staring at the office towers, unable to identify many buildings other than the TD Centre and the Royal York. I see a blaze of light in the distance and realize I\u2019m looking at the billboards of Yonge-Dundas Square. My eye is drawn along the lights of traffic on the Gardiner as the expressway peters out eastward. I\u2019m hypnotized by it all. The band\u2019s set crashes to a triumphant close and it\u2019s over.<\/p>\n

As I look for the exit elevator a song about the CN Tower pops into my brain. It\u2019s not Owen Pallett\u2019s ode, but a 1977 song by Toronto punks The Poles. Lead singer Michaele Jordana\u2019s voice is both wavering and urgent, bleating: \u201cCN Tower! CN power!\u201d She sings about the tower of old, symbol of domination and control: \u201cI could feel the CN Tower pulse \/ Its lure beamin\u2019 into my brain.\u201d<\/p>\n

The song was the counterculture\u2019s backtalk to the tower, barely a year old then and plunked down into a city whose underbelly they were still uncovering. But the city\u2019s grown up and around the tower now, along with several generations of exuberant kids finding new ways to make it their own. Some of them were at the show Wednesday night. I hear the words of the Poles\u2019 song differently now \u2014 not as a kick against the city but a declaration of love. \u201cTake me to the tower \/ Turn on the power \/ I\u2019m yours, baby.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toronto writer Helen Spitzer was at the pre-NXNE show at the CN Tower, where she met musicians and music fans who see Toronto in new and surprising ways. Here’s her dispatch from atop the city. 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