No Ordinary Fool

Some bands need to take chemistry in order to put on a great show. Others just ooze it effortlessly. The founding members of Broken Social Scene are now in their tenth year together. Yet, last night, Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning were still like a pair of eager, naive kids on their first backpacking tour of Europe - optimistic, high on life, and wanting to share the love with everyone.

The pre-show featured the world’s first public performance of Charles Spearin’s Happiness Project. The last time that I saw something of this nature, outside of a modern art gallery, the promoter had booked a telephone box as a venue! Essentially, Charles had recorded the voices of his neighbours as they spoke about happiness. He then enhanced the rhythm of their voices with music (using, say, a trumpet or a harp) and accompanied this recording live then on the night with saxophone and guitar. In fairness, the longer it went on and the more complex they made it, the better it got. The booming voice of the old West Indian lady was definitely the best one!

Moving on to the main performance, I think that it has been a few years since Evan Cranley last toured with the collective. However, his contribution with the trombone was immense last night, adding real depth and variation to songs such as the two openers of Pacific Theme and 7/4 (Shoreline). He was also the fifth axe on the magnificent-sounding Farewell to the Pressure Kids. Amy Millan seemed to have a quiet enough evening, on the other hand, but she was lead vocals on songs such as 7/4 (Shoreline) and Anthems for a Seventeen-Year Old Girl, as well as accidentally KC’ing someone in the front row later on with the microphone as she was swinging it!

Kevin was certainly full of beans though! He could not stop telling the crowd how much it meant for him to be playing again in Dublin. He has either taken the “Keeping a Dublin Crowd Happy for Dummies” guidebook completely to heart or he really meant it. I like to think that it was the latter, for his recollections of the previous time here were pretty impressive. He also dedicated the first encore song of I’m Still Your Fag to the crowd!

We were also treated though to Kevin’s reminiscences about listening to Men At Work as a kid. Scary stuff, let me tell you. However, he had us in his pocket by then, having just sang Lover’s Spit, with only his own keyboard playing for accompaniment. The crowd had been trying to make him laugh as he introduced the song. However, they shut up brillantly when he did start to play. It was a nice few moments away from the normal sonic mayhem of the band.

The second encore song was a brilliant new one called Water In Hell. The band, though, refer to it as their Pavement song. It really does need to be heard live to appreciate it fully. Last night it featured Brendan on vocals and Kevin on drums. They finished, then, inevitably, with their favourite form of on-stage lengthy indulgence It’s All Gonna Break.

On the whole, it was perhaps a more muted show than the band have played here before. However, even without opening the throttle fully, Broken Social Scene remain one of the best live acts in the alternative music business to go see. Moreover, unlike compatriots Arcade Fire, their performances remain quite intimate.

In terms of looking forward to the future, Brendan has his album Something for All of Us out soon and I thought that Churches Under The Stairs from it already sounds excellent. Here is hoping that their promotional tour for the album brings them back here before Christmas!

Finally, with no liability on my part for inaccuracies(!), here is the set list as I recall it:

- Pacific Theme

- 7/4 (Shoreline)

- Farewell to the Pressure Kids

- Churches Under the Stairs

- Frightening Lives

- Backed Out on the…

- Superconnected

- Fucked Up Kid

- Anthems for a Seventeen-Year Old Girl

- Meet Me In The Basement

- Love is New

- Broke Me Up

- KC Accidental

- Ibi Dreams of Pavement

- Major Debut Label

- Lover’s Spit

- I’m Still Your Fag

- Water in Hell

- It’s All Gonna Break