Culture Collide Festival made sure to get the word out on Nive Nielsen & The Deer Children as they told us to get to The Echoplex at 8pm sharp to see the Greenland band that was “heir to Arcade Fire.” The doors didn’t open at 8:00 and the band didn’t go on until 8:30 however, just like any other Canadian indie rock band there sure were a lot of musicians crammed onto the stage.

Arcade Fire may have been the first band to compare them to since the they just played Los Angeles but Nive Nielsen & The Deer Children took on a vibe more similar to Broken Social Scene with hints of Phish. With gorgeous, mellow, country undertones, the demure and talented “Eskimo folk” singer-songwriter, Nive Nielsen, led this massive well-oiled machine of a band into musical overdrive.

With that many people on stage, we expected the variety of instruments to be a rich and intriguing selection. Capturing our attention, we looked on as Nielsen’s backing band, The Deer Children, were playing more instruments than one could name off in a minute but we’ll try: Instruments on stage included everything from guitar to horn to banjo to lap steel to the musical saw… and plenty more.

The comparison to Arcade Fire may have been quite a ways off but Nive Nielsen & The Deer Children definitely deserved the praise they had gotten to encourage concert goers into becoming new fans. Nielsen’s vocals are a bit on the shy side but the lyrics and slow grooves in the midst of jam outbursts were brilliantly striking.

***Check more photos of Nive Neilsen & The Deer Children out from our Culture Collide Festival gallery on Saturday!