Never Enough Notes e-zine // reviews + interviews + music

Sometimes live music can be the most surprising when it is seen on a whim. Walking past Manchester Academy I came across tickets for Broken Social Scene, one of those bands that I’d always meant to see and just never quite got around to. The venue was swarming with excited Canadians; representative of the band’s relatively small but vehemently passionate following.

The visual spectacle of the band that refuses the label of ‘supergroup’ was exciting to see, it felt like a true fusion of genre and influence. Echoes of bands and solo artists I love the most weaved themselves harmoniously in and amongst the rest of the band with the integration acts such as ‘Stars’ ‘Metric’ and ‘Feist’ balancing the male vocal and the stronger solid retro-rock influence. A fast-paced, cohesive and vibrant whir characterised the first phase of the gig, with ‘Back to the Future-esque’ guitar riffs causing the audience to bite down that little bit harder on their straws, crinkling their plastic cups and swilling their jar in anticipation of the next phase.

The band seemed to be enjoying themselves, possibly more when they were talking than playing music, and seemed to take pleasure in imparting lots of clichéd, proverbial advice like ‘kiss your enemies but steal five bucks from their pockets’ and repeatedly telling the crowd how much they ‘believed in [us]all.’ Suffice to say it was truly a lighter in hand moment, one of which I am far too cynical and flippant to partake in, but hey, loads of audience lapped it up!

The rapidity of the sound slowed momentarily for ‘Lovers’ Spit’ as the band hauntingly chorused how they ‘sit around and clean their face with it’, a truly evocative point in the gig which served as a hiatus to the more self-indulgent and digressive instrumental sessions, which although proved the band’s talent further, was at times lacking in entertainment value. For those consumers like me who had previously dabbled in BSC and came to the gig wanting to hear ‘Anthems For A Seventeen Year-Old Girl’ and a few other plinky-plonky three-minuters, you have sorely missed the point. The band is as much about that as it isn’t. BSS truly defies definition, they are anything you want them to be, hand pick the bits you like and discard those you don’t. They won’t judge you. Promise.