The Bathysphere Presents: Broken Social Scene Toursplosion 2008

Photo by Josh Moles

The Beaumont Club, Kansas City, 10/16/08
My problem with Broken Social Scene has always been their excess. They have so many members, so many instruments, and an unfortunate inability to self-edit. Judging by their set last Thursday at the Beaumont, they have sort of a similar problem live. Having up to, like, eleven people on stage at once, and with a back-catalog that is increasingly inconsistent, it didn't surprise me that they sometimes came across as a little self-indulgent and scattered. With so many sounds happening at once, the mix degenerated pretty frequently into a muddy, ear-splitting mess - although, to be fair, the bar's awful sound probably had a lot do with it. And in their lengthy two and a half hour set, they wasted probably about an hour playing some pretty lackluster songs from their recent pair of "Broken Social Scene Presents..." records, and took a few left turns into weird dub/reggae/disco songs from some project to which a member is tangentially related, or something. I don't know, it's cool that they have other projects and solo albums and stuff, but most of them are pretty unremarkable, and definitely not what people came to hear. Even some clearly diehard fans seemed pretty confused at some points.

But wait, some of the show was actually pretty great! I was probably just in a bad mood because there were a bunch of shirtless dudes with bacne sweating all over me. The BSS-proper songs they played came pretty close to being their "greatest hits." I feel like most of their tunes are either really good or really unlistenable (I'm a militant full-album listener, but I deleted all of their annoying songs from my iPod), and they played basically all of the best ones and none of the bad. The second song they played was "KC Accidental," and I seriously could have left fairly happy after that. "Cause = Time" sounded really nice, especially that great bliss-out near the end. A refreshingly stripped-down rendition of "Looks Just Like The Sun" was definitely a high-point, too. They also broke out a couple new tunes - one slow jam (first time ever live!) and one pretty catchy instrumental.

Kevin Drew seemed like a cool guy. It's weird - as ostensibly democratic the band is, dude is pretty clearly the frontman, even if he hangs in the back and plays the cowbell sometimes. He walked the kids through some very-Garden State scream therapy during "Ibi Dreams of Pavement." I felt so infinite, seriously. Also, there was a "We're Canadian, but you should go vote for the right guy" pep talk. Spencer Krug did the same thing at the Sunset Rubdown show last month. So, uh, Barry definitely has the theoretical Canadian indie rocker vote locked up. I guess they're touring swing states intentionally (even though they totally thought they were in Kansas, ha).

This band called Land of Talk opened. They are one of the most boring bands I've ever heard. Nothing but bland, mid-tempo, and completely generic music. All you need to know: they are on Saddle Creek, and have a song called "It's Okay." Aside: what is it with dudes acting like gross, misogynist assholes when bands have a female singer?

So basically, I don't know, if somebody could go all Michel Gondry (Yes, that's my second gen-Y BS indie movie reference) on me and purge about half of this show from my memory, it might have been pretty pleasant, except for the sound. Perhaps, though, Broken Social Scene's flaws, as much as their strengths, are what give them the very special place they hold in so many hearts. Probably not.

- Daniel Giordano

The Blue Note, Columbia, 10/17/08
Opener: Liz Powell’s voice is perfectly floaty and waify enough to warrant Land of Talk’s selection as opener for BSS. More Haines/Millan than Feist, her pleasantly unmemorable melodies carried what was otherwise a monotonous performance by her three-piece. With no other female vocalists on this tour, Land of Talk’s set served only to answer the question of whether or not this particular female vocalist would be capable of pulling off “Almost Crimes” with the big band later, and predictably that answer was no. I was left wondering if the pink cutoff-wearing Powell could hammer curl with a 40 pound dumbbell in each hand, and then I felt inadequate.

Drunk audience member quotes: “You’re better than Feist!” “I’m gonna download you!”

Between set vibe: The Blue Note was as full as I’ve ever seen it before even the opener went on stage. From our spot near the back of the general admission zone there wasn’t much finagle room to get closer after Land of Talk was done. The audience BSS enthusiasm though was non-palpable, the rush to the front unnoticeable, and the vodka Sprites undrinkable. No chants or slow claps despite the fact that the headliner’s acronym could warrant both simultaneously.

BSS, part 1: They haven’t released an album proper under the name Broken Social Scene since 2005, and even though they opened with Brendan Canning’s “Chameleon,” the soft trumpet harmony brought me back to the twinkling beginning of “Capture the Flag.” There were five mics set up in the front row alone, with two drum kits in the back, but there were never more than eight players at a time. Some, like Do Make Say Think’s Charles Spearin, pulled double duty on guitars and horns, creating some undesirable mid-song interludes that zapped energy during instrument switches. The front end of the BSS set did nothing but make me giddy, though, as they put up a You Forgot it in People wall of sound with a “Bedroom Rock” - “Shampoo Suicide” - “KC Accidental” trifecta. The haphazard nature with which these older songs were written is evident live, as picking up individual guitar flourishes was difficult even for the most trained of ears, but the collaboration of sound created a new, shoegaze atmospheric.

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Chameleon (Canning)
Late Nineties Bedroom Rock for the Missionaries
Shampoo Suicide
KC Accidental
Cause = Time
7/4 (Shoreline)
Fire Eye’d Boy

BSS presents...part 2: Kevin Drew said life is a cycle, and in that cycle there are new things, and he continued to use this circle of life metaphor to apologize for having to play songs from the Broken Social Scene Presents... solo series. But it’s okay, because Kevin Drew is a slovenly, drunken, Canadian deity and I golf clapped the heck out of “Farewell to the Pressure Kids.” They even found a way to sneak “Looks Just Like the Sun” between all this other tomfoolery, but they did it on electric guitars and the sound was muddled. Things turned weird when Spearin debuted his “science experiment,” in which he was interested in the melody of human speech patters. Playing saxophone to match the vocal melody recorded in a taped interview with his neighbors Mrs. Morris (a Jamaicanadian) and Victoria (a 6 year old girl), Spearin attempted to prove...something. But it was fun, if not totally offputting.

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Hit the Wall (Canning)
Churches Under the Stairs (Canning)

Farewell to the Pressure Kids (Drew)
Three Thousand Miles (Goldberg)
Looks Just Like the Sun
Charles Spearin’s science experiment
Love is New (Canning)

Back Out On The... (Drew)
Drunk audience member quote: “Play Cause = Time!”

And we’re back, pt 3: The close to this show was unreal. Prior to the release of 2005’s self titled album, all the buzz circled around “Superconnected,” and it didn’t disappoint finally getting to hear it live three years later. Drew spilled his middle school guts with a “dear diary” interlude, which was apropos of nothing but, again, it’s okay, because...CANADA! Liz Powell was more than serviceable on “Anthems,” which must be tough for these fill-in females. Andrew Whiteman, ever the frontman, contorted himself silly all night, alternating between hat and no hat, jacket and no jacket, making faces and strange shadow puppet hand gestures at the crowd and generally acting like a damn badass the whole time. He unquestionably owned the two show highlights as well. The guitar solo that emerged out of the bassline muck at the end of “Stars and Sons” was the singular best in-song moment of the night, but it was topped shortly thereafter by the encore transition. Re-appearing no more than 20 seconds after the band left the stage, he launched into a slowed-down, solo rendition of Apostle of Hustle AwesomTrak® “National Anthem of Nowhere,” imploring the rest of the band to join him for the outro and ushering in the full encore. A jam and a lyrical stumble that cost us “When I was a kid/You f****d me in the ass” later, we were done. I just about ‘sploded.

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Superconnected
Anthems for a 17-Year-Old Girl
Stars and Sons
Ibi Dreams of Pavement (A Better Day)
(encore)
National Anthem of Nowhere (Whiteman)
I’m Still Your Fag
-rocking jam-
It’s All Gonna Break

- Michael Ziman