In-store: Broken Social Scene

Broken Social Scene

Soundscapes / Sonic Boom Records. Sunday, May 9, 2010.

As a special hometown celebration for the release of their new album, Forgiveness Rock Record, word came out that Broken Social Scene were going to play a day-long mini-tour with four sets at four of Toronto's premiere independent record stores, with free tickets given out in advance with purchase of the album. Though I'm not particularly in the loop, I managed to hear about this in time to get tickets to the last two of the days' shows.¹

Figuring this'd be the sort of thing people would be eager to get into, I wandered by Soundscapes early, and indeed, there was a queue already forming outside the store, a varied mix of older and younger folks.² There was a bit of confusion in all the hurly-burly, with a coterie of the ticketless trying to decide if they would have a chance to get in, but on the whole, it was a very well-organized affair. Soundscapes even went all-out in bringing in some risers to make a small stage — a literal step up from their usual in-store arrangements.

As soon as the door was opened and people started filing in, the band — fully set up and on the stage — began playing an instrumental entry groove, and once everyone was mostly settled in they segued into "World Sick", the new album's lead-off track. A quick glance across the stage revealed the basic current core lineup was on the stage³, rocking acoustic guitars with indoor sunglasses the order of the day. The slow and gentle arrangement set the tone for this performance and hit the right emotional tone — world-weary but guardedly optimistic, which is BSS' stock-in-trade, really.

The vibe was pretty relaxed, with the band taking time in between songs to chat with each other and the crowd. The interaction included one of those Kevin Drew curveballs, where he threw in a singalong chorus from "Money Changes Everything"⁴ at the end of a slowed-down "Superconnected". Suddenly I was remembering why I love this band.

Claiming a cold, Drew asked afterwards if anyone had a tissue. "I just had an erotic thought," he joked.

"Me and My Hand!" shouted someone in the audience, referring to the onanistic closing track of the new album.

"I can't sing 'Me and My Hand' with my mom here on Mother's Day," Drew replied — though while the band tuned, he did try out a few lines of a rewritten version, now called "Me and My Mom".

Meanwhile, the other bandmembers stepped up as well. Andrew Whiteman sang on "Art House Director", the sprightliest thing yet in the set, and while introducing "Stars and Sons", Brendan Canning talked about having last played Soundscapes in 2002⁵, taking care to send a shoutout to BSS alum and former Soundscapes employee John Crossingham. before a clap-along run through the song.

"Fucked Up Kid" from Kevin Drew's "solo" album Spirit If... was a slightly less-expected addition to the set, and perfectly suited for the stripped-down instrumentation. The band was especially unhurried on this one, letting the relaxed instrumental portion slowly unfurl, stretching the song out even longer than its album version. Then, in a true goofball left turn, Canning lead a song dedicated to a friend's late dog, which was treated with as much seriousness by the band as any of the other songs, with chords being explained before it started and Spearin throwing in a nifty melodica solo.

Looking back and forth at each other to figure out what to play as a final song, someone in the crowd shouted "All to All", and the band took up the challenge. "Well, we'd be winging it on the spot," Drew warned, but they quickly worked out an acoustic arrangement of the synth-heavy number. "I'm looking forward to this," Canning said as the others behind him argued over what key the song should be in. As Whiteman held the riff at the start, it almost felt it was going to fall apart, but keeping things going, Lisa Lobsinger plunged into the vocal. It turned to out to work pretty well, with the band excitedly rushing the tempo but holding it together.

Overall, quite exceptional.

I'd previously put up a track from this set here, but you can also hear another one here.

With some time to spare before the next round, plenty of time for a relaxed walk up to Bloor and check out the line situation at Sonic Boom, where, indeed there was already a queue forming. Or, rather, two — one for ticketholders, and a much-longer one of unticketed hopefuls trying to snatch a spot. Ran into J., and we stepped in fairly close to the start of the ticketholders' line, with some time to kill examining the racks of DVD's we were standing beside.

Eventually, we moved downstairs, managing to catch a spot close up as the entire basement got crammed full, the staff apparently trying to get in as many of the folks in the non-ticketholders' line as possible. This time the band took the stage in the more traditional way, and with a stronger sense of purpose, probably attributable to the fact that this was more like the band's regular rocktastic set-up with less adjustments to be made on the fly. Leading off with the You Forgot It In People pairing of "Late Nineties Bedroom Rock for the Missionaries" and "Shampoo Suicide", an oldie-but-goodie indeed (as Drew suggested) with all the overlapping sprawl hinted at in BSS' best work still intact.

At the outset more focused and less banter-y than at the Soundscapes, the band moved straight into "7/4 (Shoreline)". Lisa Lobsinger handled the vocal part ably, and it was gratifying to see her approach it in her own way and not merely try to imitate someone else's singing. After finally pausing to chat and pass instruments around⁶, the next segment focused on the new album, represented by the trio of "Forced to Love", "Texico Bitches" and "Water in Hell". All of these were pretty convincing, with a couple possibly surpassing their album versions — in the case of "Water in Hell" perhaps as much for the go-for-gusto slight sloppiness as anything.

Kevin Drew, as is often the case, was filled with a fuck-the-practicalities enthusiasm, willing to turn all the amps as high as they'd go — with Peroff being the sober second thought in this case. Meanwhile, having fun in these environs, everyone wanted to raise the top of their guitar necks to the low basement ceiling. Drew again solicited a round of applause for his mom — and this time he even sang a song to her. It was more than just an improvised riff, too, and seemed like something the band had worked out in advance. Goofy and sweet while being slightly awkward in its earnestness, it fit in quite well with the rest of the material.

"That was the closer right there," Drew concluded after that. But quickly moving on to the "encore", there was an open discussion between band and crowd over what to do next ("'Romance to the Grave?'," Drew responded to one suggestion. "No, I can't do that right after 'Mommy I Love You'!") And sadly, Drew didn't think he could pull off "Sweetest Kill", which I was hoping for.

But instead, in a cool sort of twist, Drew called Julie Doiron, who'd been hanging around in the "backstage" area to add her voice to "Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl". Cool and unexpected, though it didn't have quite as much lift as I've seen the song get in the past. But that might capture the essence of this performance the best — at a technical and even emotional level, I've seen the band reach higher heights, but given the premium that I place of proximity and honest raggedness, this was pretty awesome. And in terms of seeing the band these days, given that I was at such close quarters made this a pretty big deal. Even if their big Island show spectacular might have been, y'know, more and bigger and longer, I chose to forgo that, as any of the additional goodness that they might have brought would have been mostly obviated by the alienation of being further away, in a giant crowd, etc. etc. In other words, utterly unlike meeting them in the basement.

And then, "Meet Me In The Basement", a perfect closer, which hit just right. For all the talk of how instrumental songs can be emotionally ambiguous, this one's joyful triumph seemed obvious here, for audience and band alike — as the song hit the false ending, before the horns punched back in, Drew said, "this is what it sounds like to us when we see all of you!"

And just like in real life where any sort of perfect moment is usually marred by some sort of awkward reality, in the best BSS tradition, there was that sense that the band didn't know how to end the song, as the emotional bombast eased off into a slow, kinda noodly, guitar outro.⁷

A little more than an hour — not bad for a freebie, and pretty good for a band on their fourth show of the day. An excellent time, and a nice reminder that no matter how big they get, Broken Social Scene aren't too big to get up close and personal. I didn't stick around after to wait and hug Kevin Drew, but one gets the impression that that he would have found that totally all right if I had.

Listen to a couple tracks from this set here and here.

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¹ The two shows earlier in the day were at Criminal Records and Rotate This.

² Amusingly, a MuchMusic interviewer working the lineup marched past me (y'know — way out of the demographic) to talk to the teenagers behind me in line and pick their brains about the importance of record stores and so on — a topic that, as they laughed amongst themselves after, they hadn't really put much thought into.

³ That'd be Whiteman, Canning, Drew, Goldberg, Spearin, Peroff and Lobsinger for those with a scorecard. They were augmented on horns by Julia Hamilton and David French.

⁴ Showing he's a man of the people, Drew referred to it as a "Cyndi Lauper song", whereas a true rock snob, of course, would have made a shout out to The Brains.

⁵ The band was obviously enjoying themselves in this environment, including Sam Goldberg, who was flipping through CD's on a shelf behind the stage during the songs he wasn't playing on.

⁶ With the band fully filling up the stage, their guitar rack was stashed on the floor right in front of them, and Drew drafted the nearest fan in the front row as a temporary roadie to pass guitars up between songs.

⁷ And a tip of the hat here to Pete Nema, who in describing the ending of the BSS set at The Island show, nailed the description of this phenomena just right: "Every time I see them, it seems as though they may have an internal competition between band members to see who can leave the stage last. I'm thinking the last person to pack it in wins."