Broken Social Scene Enthral Audience

Few bands have managed to storm the independent music world as quickly as Broken Social Scene. The Toronto-based collective had at least ten regular members at the last count, when they rose from the forests of Canada to total relevance. They broke onto the scene with their enormously popular and critically acclaimed 2002 album You Forgot It In People, an album that was hyped to such an extent (notably by rising hipster gatekeeper website Pitchforkmedia.com) that it couldn’t help but fail to live up to expectations.

Despite any such concerns, their sold-out March 27 show at the Middle East seemed to only buttress the group’s popularity in this country, putting the band in the unenviable position of now having to somehow record another, even more successful album, or have the crown of indie hopeful grabbed by a more nimble competitor.

The spastic “KC Accidental” lent some power to the beginning of their set, with its start/stop guitar and manic drum breaks reminding the crowd why they had waited for several hours in sauna-like conditions to hear Broken Social Scene. The band proved that they had truly arrived with “Stars and Sons,” a plodding song accentuated by periodic bouts of clapping that got a room of hipper-than-thou indie types involved in some fashion of audience participation, if not actual dancing.

The horn section accompanying the manifold musicians was comprised of members of Stars, a fellow Canadian band as well as the second of two opening acts that night (the first, California’s Dios, brought a pleasant dual-singer rock sound to the impatient crowd). The horn playing brought a certain vitality to the songs that was sometimes lacking on the album, making the live show all the better for it.

Much has been made of the song “Anthem for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl,” the so-called standout track from YFIIP. While pleasing the crowd, many of whom seemed to have only a passing acquaintance with the other songs (even though almost all were from the same album), the song, far from living up to its title, quickly turned into a smug drone. Singer Emily Haines (one of four in the band) does indeed possess a beautiful voice, but burying it under layers of cutesy effects and having her repeat the same simplistic refrain for bars on end is no way to showcase her talent.

Far more effective was the authentically anthemic “Almost Crimes,” which had Haines and pseudo-frontman Kevin Drew singing together in waves of mounting energy, leading the audience to rewarding sections of frantic improvisation. This song, with its impromptu guitar solos and impassioned finale, truly stole the show and the audience. “Cause=Time” was another highlight—a steadily chugging offbeat propelled the more restrained, but just as powerful number, its potential voltage crackling under a metronomic progression.

Some songs seemed to suffer from inclusion in the set.  “Looks Just Like The Sun,” although a nice change of pace on the album, with its sparse acoustic feel and airy harmonies, just didn’t have the power to carry the crowd between dense rockers. Similarly disappointing was “I’m Still Your Fag,” although at least this song benefited from a sense of self-deprecating humor that was lacking on some of the more overwrought numbers.

The closer “Canada vs. the United States” was a confused but somewhat amusing rendition of an event Drew swears “is going to happen sooner or later”—an apocalyptic showdown between the two leading superpowers of North America. If Drew and his band of compatriots are going to lead the charge for the Canadians, they need to focus on tightening up their potentially devastating lightning offensive, otherwise their blitzkrieg push will collapse under its own weight, as it nearly did during parts of this show. A lot is riding on the next Broken Social Scene album, perhaps even the fate of nations, but if these plucky Canadians are to meet the hopes they’ve created, they have a tough battle ahead.