Unlike past years, NXNE 2008 hasn't had any of their usual mega-hyped showcases that keep folks glued to a particular club. This has allowed much more moving about since chances are you'll still make it inside. Not once all week have I been denied entry, which was a nice turn of events. It also allowed me to focus on little-known bands since there weren't many must-see showcases.

And despite my hard-won cyncism, every night I found something totally awesome.

More after the jump...

That said, it is tiring being so mobile so the third night kicked off with an adrenaline burst courtesy of Montreal-via-Toronto rowdy rockers Starvin' Hungry at Lee's Palace. They're more about sound and fury than song structure, but it is a most enjoyable barrage.

Then it was off to the lEl Mocombo club to see The Two Koreas, a band indebted to post-punks The Fall and which features three music/film critics (and friends of mine) employed by Toronto alt-weekly Eye. You know how when you have friends in bands you enjoy the music but are never quite sure if it's because they are your friends? Well, if that was ever the case with 2K, it sure as hell ain't anymore. With five years and two albums under their belt, they now deliver a raucous performance with huge keyboards from Jason Anderson, fantastic (if, as another buddy pointed out, over-buried) guitars from Kieran Grant, and serious bass from resident rock star Ian Worang (also of Uncut). Plus, singer Stuart Berman, who spent much of the show off the stage and amongst the crowd, has turned into an fun, electric frontman.

But you won't forget they're music journos--who else would apologize before making a "cliché" request for more vocals in the monitor.

Then it was time for the much-ballyhooed mayhem Monotonix, a balls-out hippie-thrash trio from Israel infamous for an insane live show which more than live dup to its advanced billing.

With the drum-kit set up on the floor, the band, led by hirsute Manson ringer Ami Shalev, took off on a sea of noise as the crowd moshed around them. They hung from the rafters, poured beers all over themselves, jumped all over each other, removed their clothes and crowd-surfed while somehow still playing instruments. It was practically a Jewish wedding at one point when the audience lifted the drummer and his stool up in the air along with his drums so the dude could keep bashing away at the beat.

There were no "songs," but there didn't need to be. As befits an Israeli band, Monotonix's garage-metal music is basically the sound of perpetual war. And a cathartic release for both them and us (though my eardrums were a little mad at me afterwards).

Following that, aged power-pop punks Redd Kross (who released their first single as teenagers back in 1976) were highly skilled but, well, a little difficult to get enthused about, even with their natty suits.

Better was Brant Bjork at the Bovine Sex Club, who provided an intense-yet-laidback pothead counterpart to Monotonix's beer-and-crazy-fuelled debauchery. The former member of Kyuss (which also featured Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme) kept it real with that cult classic band's 70s-inspired stoner desert-rock. Again, there wasn't much in the way of specific songs but the long-haired metal-hippie crafted intense guitar rock that built to epic crescendos every damn time, man.