Broken Social Scene

Yet again the Metro did its best to stop your favourite journalist getting the full story. Battling on, I now deliver the following hard won observations from the front line. Field research involving a crowd survey turned up the clear consensus that Bearhug are good where ‘good’ means ‘sounds you could fall asleep to on a warm Summer day, not from boredom, but from transcendentalism’. They have the requisite harmonies and blissful little bits that seem to win bands fans in our current social climate. They were perfect openers for Broken Social Scene with their romantic, PDA inducing vibe.

Broken Social Scene had a sprawling stage presence, with musicians entering and exiting the stage as frequently as actors in a play. Multiple singers meant that for the uninitiated, there is no telling which sonic direction the next song will take, which is exciting when the sparkly numbers are played but also disappointing when they got harsher.

Call me superficial but I’m sure you’ll agree that the magic of live music isn’t all about the music- it's about a good performance too! Tonight, Kevin Drew’s fedora and tie screamed ‘please like me’ and were pared down with a T-shirt saying ‘but don’t take me too seriously’. These conflicting signals gave the impression that he wanted to dress up for the audience, but didn’t want it to look too obvious. His tactics weren’t very successful.

I was under the impression Broken Social Scene was going to be a trendy “indie rock collective” of ambitious music, but I should have known that they wouldn’t be wearing enough sequins to qualify. They have some shimmery bits here and there in their music, which probably would satisfy any crowd outside a Scissor Sisters show. Broken Social Scene has so many heads they possess a regenerative power of mythological proportions that sees them outliving their contemporaries. This is good news for the fans, whose love for the band is unlikely to fade with the end of this single evening.

Share this review on Facebook