Broken Social Scene @ Manning Bar (28/2/2008)

Broken Social Scene played the Manning Bar last night. There isn’t any structure to this, just a series of notes off the top of my head. Nevertheless I hope if you’re reading this you get a sense of the show out of it. (SPOILER) It was sweet ass!

Feist played with the band on some songs. I knew she played some guitar parts on record but I never knew she could rock out that hards. I am now REALLY looking forward to her solo show tonight. ‘7/4 (Shoreline)’, my favourite song, with the actual lead singer on stage was incredible to witness.

The band went on stage to LCD Soundsystem’s ‘Someone Great’ booming out over the speakers. When they started to turn it down Kevin Drew remarked, “No turn it up! I love this song” a statement which about rang true for everything I heard that night. He was first on stage and introduced the others as they bounded on stage to the deep bass beats as if they were some sort of crazy athletics team.

The band stopped after a few songs because the monitors kept fucking up and went offstage for a bit till it was figured out. The break wasn’t as annoying as it sounds, and energy levels remained high in the crowd due to a still really fun start.

We were front centre. We were centimetres away from Feist’s guitar at one point as she stepped out in front of the mic stands and played to the crowd. Kevin Drew stepped onto our barricade several times including powering away at one song with back turned to the audience and his “sweet ass” right in front of our faces. We also shook his hand and was flicked with his sweat as he sung and played his heart out. He also took Konrad Overdrive’s glasses and wore them for a few songs which was hilarious, at least for me. He also ended up taking away a set list which we are very pleased about.

The set list was much changed from the written script from the point after they went off due to those aforementioned technical difficulties. They put together some of the faster songs, the new songs were played back to back and they added ‘Major Label Debut (Fast)’.

“Sweet ass”, as derived (kinda) from “sweet as” (”ass” apparently because it sounds more dangerous and interesting than “as”) became the thing for the night thanks to Kevin Drew and his charming and always hilarious banter.

Brendan Canning’s dorky dancing was a plus.

Andrew Whiteman was back in the lineup after some time out and he was in fine form as usual. Something I would like to note from being in the front row is that that man must have a fucking massive penis. Seriously. Like an Evian bottle. His pants weren’t exactly those sprayed on form fitting types that some indie kids wear yet it filled out in all the right places if you know what I mean.

Totally unrelated to dick size, ‘Looks Just Like The Sun’ was incredible, particularly since it was an excellent chill number after blistering performances of ‘7/4′ and ‘Backed Out On…’. Special mention here to Feist’s backing harmonies. We understood full well that this is a special treat and we were very much thankful for it.

They played two new songs, ‘Tepeslan’ and ‘There Is Water In Hell(?)’. ‘Water In Hell’ which had Brendan Canning on vocals and Drew on drums was particularly great. ‘Templesran’ had a great little solo in it for Sam Goldberg on guitar, with an almost keyboard sounding effect.

What the fuck was with the one photographer who used the monster flash? The first time we got hit with that all we saw was white, as well as feeling the heat on our faces. He kept coming back around our way which meant we had to shield the light with our hands. We got him back with a pithy mobile phone flash :P

A very cool crowd who were helplessly under the sway of the music.

A very cool opening band called Belles Will Ring who I’ve resolved to do more to find out about. They were very entertaining.

This is tied with the best show I’ve ever seen, that being the last time Broken Social Scene were in Sydney. That time they had a 14 piece ensemble and played for three hours. This time they only had seven, however that included Feist and we touched The Man and that about made up the difference. Tomorrow it’s Feist’s solo show and may the good times continue into that.

(Set list incoming later (+ a pic of the original planned set list), as well as opinions from the other writers if they can spare the time. Pictures also incoming.)

Line up (no particular order):
Kevin Drew, Brendan Canning, Andrew Whiteman, Charlie Spearin, Sam Goldberg, Justin Peroff, Leslie Feist

Set lists (the original set list and what they actually played):

Konrad: I forgot my camera -which I think was the best thing for the whole triplet of shows (Okkervil, BSS, and Feist). I enjoyed it immensely – because otherwise I just would have been a nutter on the barricade taking photos the whole time. To which Kevin Drew actually told people to put them away. So here are a few I took in interim periods with my phone.