Live Review: Broken Social Scene

The Buckhead Theatre // Atlanta, GA // February 10

On the first stop of a ten-date tour, Kevin Drew told two stories. One credited drummer Justin Peroff because Peroff had food poisoning that day, vomited for five hours, but still wouldn’t cancel the show. The second was about how Drew’s jacket was stolen the night before and about the lack of success trying to buy a new one. The audience graciously offered him not one, but three jackets. After the third jacket was thrown onstage, Brendan Canning joked, “I left my belt at home,” and two belts were thrown onstage. All jackets were returned when Drew called coat check at the end of the show.

In between conversations and silliness, the eight exceptional musicians that currently make up Broken Social Scene carefully executed two and a half hours of nearly non-stop rock, blending many songs together with jazzy, improvised segues. During true song breaks, the mass of instruments sounded like an orchestra warming up as they got on key together, granting credibility to the band’s self-described “baroque pop.”

Half the band traded keyboards, guitars and bass with the exceptions of Charles Spearin (horn and banjo), Peroff (drums only), David French (small percussion set, flute, sax only), and Lisa Lobsinger (vocals, hand percussion, keyboards). Interspersed with the band’s biggest hit songs was nearly the entire Forgiveness Rock Record. Forgiveness highlights included Lobsinger’s first recording,“All in All” and her melodica playing on “Ungrateful Little Father,” David French’s flute part on “Sweetest Kill,” Sam Goldberg and Andrew Whiteman’s dueling guitar solos on the band’s current single “Forced To Love,” Whiteman’s vocals on “Art House Director,” and another jam during a short breakdown in “Water In Hell,” a new Canning song.

-Gail Fountain

wwwbrokensocialscene.ca