Psst, didja see what I did with the title up there? Didja see? Oh yea... I went there.

The holidays are usually associated with a number of cherished past times like unwanted visits from family, forcing a smile at the "Magic Bag" neck warmer present your aunt buys for you, and lots of egg nog (preferably with less of the egg and more of the nog). Regardless of your daytime activities, though, Santa's cooked up a little something for you to do in the nights following the paganistic celebration of all things present related. Between the 26th and the 30th the Drake is playing host to TWENTY-EIGHT acts with its series What's in the Box?, and each night is only gonna cost you a fiver.

With apologies to my mother in law (hi Jo!), I'm itchin' to get my twitch on next week. Hit the jump for a list of all the acts with links to their splendiferous music so you can plan your nights of sorrow drowning ASAP.

--
The shows are set to start at 8pm every night from the 26th to the 30th, and the price is right so it might pay to show up a tad bit early to get your drink on beforehand. Appreciate this, cuz it takes a fuck of a long time to compile all these links!

December 26th

Hip-hop with a dash of electro-twitchery rule the evening's lineup, consisting of Scratch Bastid, Ghislain Poirier, Vitamins for You (notable electro-pop standout of the night for me!), Sixtoo (aka Weaponhouse???), and My Dad vs Yours, along with Evening Hymns playing in the lounge.

December 27th

Indie rock rules the evening on this, the day that I'll probably be nursing a nasty hangover. Entertainment provided by The Ghost is Dancing, Jetplanes of Abraham (my personal pick of the night), electro-poparazzi Hexes and Ohs, Five Blank Pages, and Krief rounds things out.

December 28th

I'm pissing my pants in anticipation of this set (warning: Tide Pens aren't too good at getting rid of those stains). Satanic electro-lytes Thunderheist are the night's bigwigs, and are accompanied by trance thrashers Jokers of the Scene, Bonjay, the sexotronic Syntonics, and the robo-hoodied Opopo (guys, I play a mean jew's harp, if you wanna add some twang). I previously wrote on Opopo who have since upped the thrash on their formerly minimalistic beat-based music. The adorable gingered haired Jenn Grant will be playing the folky contrast in the lounge if you wanna slowly sway to some really cute version of some popular Christmas tunes. I'll definitely be checking her set out just so the sweat can dry off from the electro freaks on the main stage.

December 29th

This evening's set is a bit mixed, as we get some over-amplified progressive rock'n'roll techno wall-of-noise-pop-metal in the Jesus and Mary Chain tradition from A Place to Bury Strangers, along with the decidedly lo-fi The Two Koreas (previously profiled over here). Other featured acts this night include Fjord Rowboats, Love Anna, and the psych-o-delic Dundas with soul-folk rocker Peter Elkas playing the lounge.

December 30th

The finale ends by going back to more electronic and beat oriented acts, just in case Stuart Berman's The Two Koreas were a little to under-produced for your liking. Techno-minimalist Pheek gets the first listing, followed by 87 year-old Adam Marshall, the mono-tastic Coordinates, Jay hunsberger (can someone find me a link for the dude?), and Jap (again, link? "Jap" is pretty generic and all I can find are Nintendo DS sales charts).

BlogTO will be representin' at the series, and if you wanna find us, just shout, really loud and when everyone else is quiet, "NEW WAVE IS DEAD TO ME!" I don't imagine anyone else will be shouting that out, so we'll be sure to know you want us to walk over and give you a holiday hug, preferably before you get all stinky and sweatified.

What's in the Box?
The Drake Hotel
1150 Queen Street West
(416) 531-5042
Tickets: $5 each night