On this live bootleg, you’ll hear a group of friends joyously performing for their community, the people of Toronto who supported them when Broken Social Scene was just a two-person instrumental curiosity, before all the awards, the late night television performances, and invites to Glastonbury and Lollapalooza. Pitchfork had called the album “endlessly replayable, perfect pop” giving it a Best New Music designation and the BBC called it “absolutely, utterly essential,” setting into motion the band’s swift ascent to global recognition. They ended the night on a vote with Kevin Drew posing the following choices to the audience: “We can play “Superconnected”, we can play “Major Label Debut”, or we can play “Lover’s Spit”.” The audience chose old ballad ‘Lover’s Spit’, with Jimmy joining in on trumpet, and the epic slow jam rounded out a mostly perfect evening.The record had been released the previous year and was already on its journey to becoming one of the most celebrated indie albums of the decade. Haines stayed on stage for two more songs – the new ‘Sentimental X’, which she also recorded for Forgiveness Rock Record, and a passionate performance of the rarely-played track ‘Almost Crimes.’ She then left, but Jimmy remained for most of the rest of the show, switching between his guitar and percussion and even joining the brass quartet on trumpet. I may sound like a fangirl here, but it was a truly magical experience. The spotlights caught the disco ball that hangs in the middle of Webster Hall’s ceiling, and turned the inside of the venue into a starry paradise. The band dove into ‘Anthems for a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl’ which rarely sounds complete without its original vocalist. Former BSS vocalist and current Metric lead singer Emily Haines appeared from backstage for the next song.
#BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE WEBSTER HALL FULL#
Halfway through the first set, Metric guitarist and frequent BSS contributor, Jimmy Shaw, joined the band onstage to add a fourth guitarist for new track ‘Sweetest Kill.’ The already full sound became even richer. Michael, as he introduced himself, was called on stage to hold a sheet of the lyrics to ‘Forced to Love’, since Drew claimed to never be able to remember them. Like in 2008, Kevin Drew asked an audience member on stage, but this time, it wasn’t to sing. Despite the changes that have occurred in the past five years, their chemistry is still fresh, and the tracks blended together perfectly. They haven’t recorded an album since 2005, and the difference in sound is easy to hear. As could be expected, they played the entire new album, kicking off the show with opening track ‘World Sick’ and filling the rest of the two hour set with choice tracks from You Forgot it in People (2003) and Broken Social Scene (2005). There was no opening act, and they hit the stage promptly at 8:35pm. This time around, they’re promoting their week-old album, Forgiveness Rock Record, touring as a full band again, and I’m a much bigger fan. In the summer of 2008, they played the Siren Music Festival in Coney Island, NY, and all I can remember is that they had a girl from the crowd sing with them and ended their set with ‘It’s All Gonna Break’ (also the only track I knew) off their self-titled 2005 release. It’s been a long two years since I’ve seen Broken Social Scene play live, and this time was a lot different than the last.
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