Broken Social Scene - The Metro, Sydney (4th August, 2010)

7 August 2010 by Max Easton

Fresh from their appearance at Splendour in the Grass, Toronto's Broken Social Scene made their way to a sold out Metro Theatre for one of only two Australian sideshows. Soulshine's Max Easton and Sarah Frazer were on the ground for words and photos.

Situated just a few hundred metres from Sydney's Town Hall and wedged between bars, fast food outlets and video game arcades, the Metro Theatre is, by nature, a busy place.  Whilst in line, you're surrounded by lights, traffic and the bustle of one of Sydney's most constantly busy streets; and on this night, featuring one of Canada's biggest and most important independent acts, not a lot changed on entry. Climb the giant flight of stairs, grab yourself a beer and try to find a spot amongst a jam-packed and sold out theatre and you're starting to wonder where all these people came from. After all, aren't Broken Social Scene that hip band from Canada that none of your friends know about, thus making them infinitely cooler? 

Broken Social Scene are an act that have an almost mythical story surrounding them. Having included names like Feist, Metric's Emily Haines and Stars' Amy Milan amongst their forever changing roster, they've often been referred to as a supergroup, seemingly reacting by culling down the band's line-up to a core of eight, of which makes them no less super. Fronted by Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning with Apostle of Hustle's Andrew Whiteman and Do Make Say Think's Charles Spearin in there alongside Lisa Lobsinger, Justin Peroff and Sam Goldberg, you've still got a list of names that pretty well typify Canada's independent music scene. So how does that translate when they jump across the ocean to play in front of another country of the Commonwealth? According to the reactions from the sold out Metro; pretty damn good.

If they did anything on Wednesday night, Broken Social Scene proved themselves as masters of setlist structure. The opener World Sick was a massive start to a massive set which encompassed tracks across their major studio albums, with favourites like KC Accidental from Feel Good Lost, Fire Eye'd Boy from their self-titled opus and, of course, a stack from their latest, Forgiveness Rock Record, they knew what we wanted to hear. Even the funk/dance number Love is New from Brendan Canning's sadly under-promoted solo album got its first Australian play. It was a setlist which spanned their career and seemed to please almost everyone in presence. 

The gig faltered only by the fact that the band was exhausted. Lisa Lobsinger didn't sing on account of the flu, Sam Goldberg attempted to walk off stage a song early and Kevin Drew complained tongue in cheek about the band's children back home asking where Dad was; so there was a vibe across the stage that they didn't want to be there. You could forgive them on account of performing at Japan's Fuji Rock Festival on Saturday prior to flying to Splendour in the Grass, then Melbourne, now Sydney and then New Zealand all within a week, but obviously, the show's energy suffered for it. However, to their credit, they were absolute professionals, with Andrew Whiteman's bordering-on-ADD guitar solos suggesting that someone had successfully beaten their jetlag. 

A constant drunken call for Lover's Spit earlier in the night was responded to by Brendan Canning with the threat to send the guy to his room followed by his step-father with a strap-on, the threat of which was eventually withdrawn as Kevin Drew stepped behind the keys to play a version akin to Feist's recording from the Bee Hives EP. On this track, Drew hit some phenomenal notes, making up for some occasionally poor vocal moments throughout the night in a truly beautiful performance of a song that, in converse to its beauty, is about giving head. Accompanied by trumpet, harmonica and harmonium, the song was gorgeous, but meandered without the sudden lift of drums that accompanies the recorded versions. With the announcement that we had now entered the encore, the setlist kings finished with their newest big finish in the form of Meet Me in the Basement, with a gigantic horns flourish to finish off the night. Meet Me in the Basement is an amazing way to end a Broken Social Scene gig and does an amiable job of supplanting their former finishing track It's All Gonna Break.

From an infinite to an eight-piece, the group from Toronto have changed, evolved and altered into an outfit that are absolutely at the top of their game. They surprised many with this year's release of Forgiveness Rock Record and have followed that up with an appearance at Australia's premier festival and a sold out show at the Metro. Broken Social Scene have finally cracked the Australian market and with this night at the Metro, have proven that they've done so off the back of a fantastic back catalogue and with the utmost professionalism. If you were there on the night, count yourself lucky, as they're unlikely to head back to this neck of the woods anytime soon, and if you weren't, then maybe it's time you made that trip to Canada to give them a look see.

Broken Social Scene's Forgiveness Rock Record is out now on Spunk Records.

Album Reviews

Kimbra - Vows

Ben Salter - The Cat

Seasick Steve - You Can't Teach An Old Dog New Tricks

Timber Timbre - Creep On Creepin On

More Reviews