Last night Tim and I went to the ICA to see Toronto leftfield ’supergroup’/collective/thing of amazing beauty Broken Social Scene. I bought their album “You Forgot It In People” as a Canadian import several months ago (yes, I’m so hip) after reading the rave review at Pitchforkmedia, and it has fully lived up to all the hype, quickly becoming one of my favourite albums of the last few years.
So, I had fairly high expectations for the gig - which meant I forced myself to go even though I was feeling rather tired and shagged out after an exhausting week of moving house. Nothing, however, could prepare me for how awesomely, unbelievably great BSS were last night. Heh. When we arrived the ICA bar was buzzing, but the room where the gig was to take place was largely empty - a scattering of keen types sitting around on the floor on their coats. The stage was filled with all the right amps - Fender, Ampeg, Vox - and I wondered to myself how many members of the band would be performing (BSS is a ‘collective’ in the true sense of the word - formed around the core duo of Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning the line-up is ever shifting, featuring as many as 11 musicians, most of whom are drawn from the extremely fertile and vibrant Toronto music scene. No overpriced t-shirts - in fact no t-shirts or merchandising at all. Just the music. How refreshing).
Anyway, last night BSS were a six piece. They ambled onto - and quickly filled - the compact stage and an aura of expectation settled over the crowd. Or at least over me. Kevin Drew instantly proved himself a charming and likeable ‘frontman’ (as close as BSS has to one) recounting his enjoyment at watching IDS on TV at the Tory party conference, explaining that the band had had 4 hours sleep in the last 24 and were operating in a ‘valium like haze’ of jetlag exhaustion, but promising that they would ‘play their hearts out’ for us anyway. They all seemed like such NICE, unassuming people - typical Canadians, in fact.
And then they started playing what was almost certainly the best gig I have seen. Period. And singlehandedly reaffirmed my faith in live performance. I’ve not been to too many gigs lately, and those that I have were mostly disappointing. I mean, I love the Interpol album, but when we saw them at Shepherds Bush Empire they were rather underwhelming, despite trying their - the venue was too big, the sound system too bad, and we were too high up in the rafters to get any atmosphere. Adrienne and I concluded somewhat ruefully that maybe we are getting too old for this pop gig nonsense. Hah! Boy, was I ever wrong.
Before the gig, Tim, who hadn’t heard a note by the band, asked me what they were ‘like’. I tried to explain that they were fairly eclectic and experimental, but also rocked ass and wrote insanely catchy, hook-laden ‘pop’ songs. The flyer quoted someone who described them as ’synth led pop’ - they do use keyboards (along with brass, tape loops, handclaps and zithers, probably) but given that for much of the evening there were FOUR guitars in action (and what beautiful, radiant, coruscating action it was!) this description seems to miss the point almost wildly.
Things started quietly with a synth led (heh) ambient piece, the six members filling the stage and proving the band almost as interesting to watch as they are musically. They are not quite a ‘motley bunch’ but you definitely get the impression they don’t all consult the same stylist. The intro gradually ramped up the tempo until it started to morph into a fantastically awesome “KC Accidental”, which is about the time I started grinning like a fool for two hours. And then we were off and running. The set developed organically - the various members swapping instruments between songs, familiar tracks from the album segueing into equally compelling new numbers, the volume getting louder and louder and louder until the pinnacle of a mighty “Cause = Time” (my favourite song from the album and the new single), which is about when I realised that this was a very special gig indeed. I lost my shit. Soon after, when I had recovered my shit, I surveyed the crowd behind me and saw a lot of very happy, surprised and transfixed faces - people were even dancing! In the ICA! To an experimental Canadian rock band!
It’s difficult to pick out any particular high points as the entire gig held my complete attention from the off (this is most unusual - I usually have a tedious running commentary going on in my head, even at good gigs , and there are inevitably periods where my attention wanders, but not this time. I still had an interior monologue, but it consisted almost entirely of “This is so awesome, this is so awesome, hee hee…I hope to doesn’t get much better as I may suffer a catastrophic awesomeness overload and my brain may explode”etc…) You probably think I am exaggerating. I’m not. The band are so tight - they have clearly played together a whole lot and have that ‘psychic’ connection with each other that the best live acts all share, they clearly love their music dearly, and they just have really, really great songs. I sometimes have dreams in which I am watching (or sometimes a member of) a band playing an unbelievably great gig. BSS are that band.
So, Toronto. What’s with that? How did Canada in general, and Toronto in particular, suddenly become such an extremely cool place? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Canada, unusually in this day and age, and hearteningly given the way things are going with their southern neighbours, seems to be that rare thing - a genuinely progressive and forward-looking nation. I do hope that the “Boring Canada” tag can be dispensed with. On the evidence of bands such as Broken Social Scene, there is nowhere more exciting musically right now.
Oh, and they are playing again in London next week, at “Alan McGee’s party”. When I find out where exactly that is I am, like, so there, mmm hmmm. You should come, too.
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