Before signing on, make sure you have actually have enough songs to fill a 25-minute set. Alarmingly, this proved a problem for the heavily-hyped Magneta Lane, who cranked out a few rapid-fire tunes - most of which, it must be said, sounded nearly identical - and then fled the stage. As a result, the local girls were badly overshadowed by the other three bands on Paper Bag Records' Friday night card - although, happily, it left extra time for one of NXNE's out-and-out highlights: an hour-long set by local vets the Deadly Snakes that threatened to tear the roof off the Gladstone.

Don't let the hype machine kick in too early. Even with technical glitches that were out of their control, the fresh-faced Most Serene Republic would have seemed a lovely little find to anyone coming in out of the blue. But billed as the second coming of Broken Social Scene, and playing to a Reverb packed with industry types expecting to be blown away, they underwhelmed.

The more the merrier. With a limited amount of time, the best way to create a sense of occasion is by packing the stage with as many warm bodies as possible - as The Old Soul's eight members proved with a standout Thursday night showing that offered horns, keyboards, ample percussion and a generally endearing sense of chaos.

The later the better. At 9 p.m. the venue will be half-empty. By 11 p.m. it'll be packed with scenesters absent-mindedly nodding their heads in approval as they carry on conversations about where to take advantage of the extended bar hours. But after 1 a.m., it's the diehards who are left - the sorts who'll hang on your every note, shuffle around the floor accordingly, and make noise at all the appropriate moments. If you send them home happy, they'll be eternally grateful. And as an added bonus, most venues won't be as anal retentive about enforcing your time limit.

Get yourself a keyboardist. Everybody now has one. If it's someone who can help with vocals, bonus. If he or she has a gimmick, like the Golden Dogs' Jessica Grassia (putting up placards atop the keyboard at the start of each song announcing its title), even better.

If your lyrics are in French, turn down the guitars enough so we can fully appreciate the cultural experience. Otherwise, as Malajube proved at Pop Montreal's Cameron House showcase, you'll wind up sounding just like every other guitar-heavy indie band ... even if your frontman's capri pants (or something approximating them) are delightfully exotic.

Speaking of Malajube, don't tell an audience that lined up for the pleasure of sitting in a jam-packed, sweaty little room that you're cutting your set short because you have another gig to play. At least lie about it. Or storm off the stage feigning Montrealers' anger at Toronto audiences' notorious indifference. That always plays well.

Don't let the sound mix get to you. "The funny thing about these festivals," Deadly Snakes keyboardist Max Danger loudly groused as they wrapped up their set, "is that there's all this pomp and circumstance, but they don't even let you do a sound check." But unlike other bands - Vancouver's The Hermit, for one, who spent much of their set trying to get their guitars turned up or down - the Snakes played through ceaseless feedback and assorted other technical glitches without missing a note. In this format, the sound mix is going to suck; the smart bands deal with it and move on.

Make sure the air conditioning works. For all those bands that played Rancho Relaxo - I'm sure you were delightful. But about three minutes of listening to the perfectly competent Clothes Make the Man in sauna-like conditions was enough to make every other sweaty venue seem cool and inviting by comparison.

Don't worry too much about fashion sense - if temperatures are anything like this year, your shirt won't make it to the end of the show. This goes double if you're a drummer. And triple if you're playing Rancho Relaxo.