There are moments approaching genuine greatness in the opening songs of tonight’s set by Toronto’s Broken Social Scene. In total they number nine, a core group of six manning drums, bass and various guitars and a Korg keyboard-type gizmo, with a violinist, trumpet player and female vocalist waiting in the wings to make regular appearances at various occasions throughout the show.
One of the above-mentioned moments happens towards the end of “7/4 (Shoreline)”, when, having built up a head of steam over a rock solid bass and drums foundation taking in a boy/girl vocal duel on the way, a horn section (trumpet & sax) enters with a Stax figure at just the right milisecond to take the song up up and away to the higher reaches of the stratosphere.
What really sets apart Broken Social Scene from so many of their contemporaries - at the beginning of this gig at least - is the sheer joy of it all. Throughout the slow/fast stop/start dynamics of the mostly instrumental “KC Accidental”, and the adrenalin pumped “Cause=Time”, the band throw themselves unselfconsciously around the stage, striking all manner of poses and guitar shapes, and in general having a ball.
Another great moment occurs during Fire Eye’d Boy, when one member departs a second drum kit, having hammering the toms for couple of breathtaking passages, and vaults his amp to take his place behind the Korg for the song's coda front of stage.
There are also instances of, a somewhat less frantic, sweetness. The gently propulsive “Major Label Debut” for example, with its swoonsome harmonies on its “all hooked up” chorus.
And throughout of all this special mention should be given to Justin Peroff, one of the most versatile and powerful skinsmen I’ve come across in a good while
But then…well then, BSS somehow manage to (excuse my french) piss it away. Almost. Feet of clay first become apparent during a fumbled “Handjobs for the Holidays”, where the individual parts don’t quite gel, to the point where it feels like the vocals may in fact be in the wrong key.
A couple of songs later, current album highlight “Superconnected” is inexplicably reduced to a snail's pace ballad which builds up speed (but not speedily enough) over seemingly endless repetitions of the same verse and chorus.
There are a couple of reasons for the loss of momentum and subsequent lack of engagement with the songs. One, Andy Whiteman’s guitar starts playing up, which seems to have a knock-on effect on several of his bandmates. Two, Kevin Drew starts talking and is unable, or unwilling, to stop. Unfortunately his banter takes the form of in jokes which seem to amuse the band significantly more than the crowd, and platitudes along the lines of “Fight the good fight, Glasgow!”. Political commitment is to be encouraged, but unfortunately the exact nature of BSS’s political convictions doesn’t take any more definite shape than this kind of surface sloganeering.
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The remainder of the set veers from the frustratingly cack-handed to occasional flashes of that earlier brilliance: the lovely “Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl”, featuring a stand-out contribution from Lisa Lobsinger, being an example of the latter. The lengthy meandering “Bandwitch”, a meandering waste of the very same vocalist's obvious talent representing the other extreme.
Somewhere towards the end Drew leaves the stage to enter the audience and hug random fans while the rest of the band noodle away, a moment which separated the afficionados from this interested observer. Sour grapes for not getting a hug some might say, but I can’t say I was particularly heartbroken to have avoided the clutches of this would be rock and roll messiah.
Miraculously enough the magic does return for the close of set finale “It’s All Gonna Break”. As all 9 pieces of the band pull it together for a final crescendo, a green lamp at the rear of the stages blows out like a firework, plunging the whole shebang into darkness. Which doesn’t deter The ‘Scene who, to their credit, take it home in style, and deserve their curfew-busting encore (even if it comes in the form of a repeat performance “Ibi Dreams of Pavement”, the best homage to Malkmus and the boys this side of, well, Pavement, really).
So frustrating and delightful in equal measure, Broken Social Scene possibly won’t have the commitment or discipline to do an Arcade Fire, but they will make a glorious noise at times along the way.
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