This Week in the Mercury
Friday, February 6, 2009
Live Review / Photography Broken Social Scene at Wonder Ballroom, Feb 4 2009
Posted by Ned Lannamann on Fri, Feb 6, 2009 at 3:22 PM
Photography by Minh Tran; minhternet.com
Broken Social Scene took the stage of a sold-out Wonder Ballroom on Wednesday night and played for nearly two and a half hours, taking ingredients and garnishes from all the different nooks and crannies of the Broken Social Scene pantry. Justin Peroff anchored the sprawling band from behind the drum kit, while the massive front line rotated guitars and basses and keyboards. The addition of a horn section (including special Portland guest of Justin Harris on sax) left no question that although much of BSS appears to be spontaneous collaboration, their highly orchestrated—nearly symphonic—sound they create is very deliberately thought out.
They opened with an instrumental fanfare, then launched into "KC Accidental," and over the course of the evening it seems like they played nearly the entire You Forgot it in People album, highlights being "Stars and Sons," a late-show climax of "Lover's Spit," and Lisa Lobsinger's rendition of perennial fan favorite "Anthem for a 17 Year Old Girl."
Selections from Brendan Canning's recent "solo" record were interspliced too, including the Happy Mondays-esque dance jam "Love Is New" played with the house lights on. Perhaps the highlight of the evening, though, were the two songs from Charles Spearin's forthcoming The Happiness Project album. Spearin recorded conversations with his neighbors in Toronto, then turned them into music. At the show, he played a recording of his neighbor's Caribbean lilt, then saxophonist Leon Kingstone essentially doubled her voice on his sax. A second selection looped a deaf woman's statement "All of a sudden I heard my body moving inside" and everyone in the band backed up the loop as a choir.
It's kind of pointless for me to explain it; it was unique and indescribable and fucking amazing.
The show closed, as it only could, with an epic "It's All Gonna Break," and a dazed, happy crowd drained out of the Wonder Ballroom onto NE Russell. It was a rare occasion in Portland, a weekday show run long in which nearly everybody in attendance stayed 'til the bitter end.
Broken Social Scene has been known to leave some people cold, perhaps those whose interest in pop music is partly driven by the performer's personality (BSS has virtually none—with maybe the sole exception of the preacher-ish quality of Kevin Drew—or perhaps BSS has so many personalities that they all negate each other). As a live experience, though, the communal quality of their music extends to the audience, and no one in that old gym on Wednesday night was left unconvinced.
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