Broken Social Scene lacks their famous cohorts, but not heart

It’s recently been relayed to me that my reviews on this blog are often overly critical. Well too bad, (Eminem once said “Will Smith don’t have to cuss in his records, well I do. So fuck him and fuck you too!” Some may say that is a harsh lyric, I think its hilarious and spot on. Anywho...) I’m a musician and I know what I’m talking about. Plus, this was never intended to be a blog where “everybody wins”. I write it how I see it, it’s all I can do. That said, Broken Social Scene blew my fucking face off last night, so you’re in for a positive one.

In support of first installment of the “Broken Social Scene Presents” series, Kevin Drew’s Spirit If..., The band (well half of it. No horns or leading ladies this night) sold-out the intimate Paradise Rock Club in Boston. This incarnation of BSS featured some typical players and some new ones, most notably American Analog Set’s Andrew Kenny.

The band took the stage at 9:15 (they left the stage at close to 11:45, nice) and launched into “Lucky Ones” off the new disc before playing the first of many older tunes, “Cause = Time”. I like. The entire band seemed to be fighting a head cold, all were drinking water or tea (Kevin even bitched about the ceiling fan on the stage not being turned off saying “I’m smart enough to know that cold sweat on your neck is not a good thing”) but they didn’t let it bring the show down. If anything, they rocked harder.

The intimacy of the crowd allowed Kevin and Brendan to hear all of the crowd’s (mostly innane) shout outs. One guy even called for “Freebird” to which Kevin quipped, “Whatever positive things you have contributed to society, you took them all back with that remark”...Classic. The thing about BSS is that their music is powerful, arty and amazing enough that they could be high on their horse and be total dicks. However, they are so down to earth that you just want to smoke a joint with them and pick their brains. They politely rejected song requests they couldn’t pull off (like “Shoreline”, which they teased briefly) without the assistance of a female vocalist and even brought a guy onstage who requested the very song they were about to play, before “Gang Bang Suicide”.

Aside from all the hilarious and interesting banter, the music was fantastic. With only 6 people on stage (there can be up to 14), the songs still resonated deeply with the crowd and got the whole place dancing and singing along. “Backed Out on the....” and “Major Label Debut (fast)” bursted with energy and purpose alike. There was no crowd chit-chat, all eyes were on BSS. It was nice to be at a show were everyone was so involved and attentive, a real group outing. Reminds me of many Phish shows I’ve seen back in the day where everyone was stoked about what they saw. The end of the night was a one guitar accompanied crowd sing-a-long of Spirit If’s closer “When it Begins” which was a moment I’ll never forget. The song is simple but brilliant and in the words of Drew himself, possibly “too beautiful to fuck”.

The opener, Seattle’s Arthur and Yu, played some pretty indie-folk but unfortunately the soundman must have been out smoking a butt during their set. The bass way too high in the mix and you could barely hear the vocals. Alright here's my one critical letter of the night - Dear Arthur and Yu, two guitarists playing the exact same chord shape at the same time the whole show is not that cool, also don’t be afraid to play a minor chord once in a while.


Set List: Lucky Ones, Cause = Time, Fucked Up Kid, Safety Bricks, Tbtf > Stars and Sons, Brendan Canning song*, Bullet in Your Head**, Backed out on the..., Superconnected, So Hard to Shake It***, Gang Bang Suicide, Farewell to the Pressure Kids, Major Label Debut (fast), 7/4 Shoreline tease > It's All Gonna break

E: When it Begins > feedback**** > jam

* from Brendan's forthcoming solo album. ** not sure of title so I guessed. *** American Analog Set song, guessed on title.**** the whole band left the stage (as did much of the crowd) but Brendan stayed and played a bunch of feedback until the rest of the band came out and jammed for a bit. Andrew Kenny (of American Analog Set) played keyboards and guitar the whole show.