NXNE 2013: Dangerband @ Velvet Underground by Cody McGraw

SATURDAY — It should be pretty obvious to Little Red Umbrella enthusiasts (Brellies?) that we are sort of wish it was still the '90s. In fact, our conversations usually go a lot like this:

LRU 1: The '90s were awesome.
LRU 2: Yeah. I hated so few bands then.
LRU 1: But I never understood the appeal of Pearl Jam.

Or something like that.

One act that especially makes us miss that decade is Dangerband. Their Saturday night set at Velvet Underground was, as always, riotous and sweaty. The audience crowded up at the front of the stage, jumping and bouncing along to the band's retro powerpop, shouting the hooky choruses at the top of their lungs. (One of the most enthusiastic audience members, the brother of frontman Rane Elliott-Armstrong, even got spontaneously pulled up on stage to sing along for a song.) A good '90s throwback is tough to find (unless you're into live music in Toronto at the moment), so a band that does it right is all the more welcome. You could almost hear Rivers Cuomo turning on "Stupid Boyfriend" to get ideas.

MP3: "Stupid Boyfriend" by Dangerband

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Find all of our coverage of NXNE here.

Photos by Carmen Cheung.

Cody McGraw is many things but the thing you can actually call him to his face is the Managing Editor of The Little Red Umbrella. See more posts from him here or follow him on Twitter @cody_mcgraw.