BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE (London Scala, 05/09/07)


When I first saw Canadian indie collective Broken Social Scene in 2006, I described their set as '10% pretentious nonsense, 60% goodness, 30% pure brilliance'. Fast-forward to September 2007, when the much-reduced band returned to these fair isles to support Kevin Drew’s new disc “Spirit If…,” and one finds that the proportions have now shifted to ‘10% mild brilliance, 50% goodness, 40% Kevin chatting utter bollocks.’

Which is a shame, as it started off very well indeed. The first few songs were the same fuzzy, dense indie pop that old-school BSS made their own, but punchier and more focused than before. This shift in songwriting seems to reflect the slimmed down line-up (only 6 members, no Arts and Crafts ladies and no strings or brass), and in many ways it’s a good move; the self-indulgent tendencies that marred some of their older work has been excised. But they’re obviously not all that comfortable with the material yet and the set took a notable dive when Brendan Canning's mic failed during his turn in the spotlight. This knock seemed to affect their confidence and didn't really recover their form until near the end, when they finally wheeled out the hits (Lover's Spit, Superconnected, Major Label Debut (Fast Version)). Kevin’s nervousness was written all over the performance; he kept babbling about being under 'no pressure' and as the night progressed and increasing volumes of alcohol were imbibed, he became even less coherent, spouting rubbish when they could have been playing songs. And even though he kept on talking about the need to do different things, the band actually looked happiest and most animated when playing the classics- a feeling emphatically shared by the audience. One suspects that if they worked out a superior balance of old and new material, the quality of the set would improve dramatically- not to knock Spirit If…, but generally fans will respond more positively to new stuff if it’s interspersed with stuff they can sing along to.

So ultimately this comeback proved to be a bit of a damp squib; we all knew it was never going to compare with the legendary shows of old but nonetheless it could, and should’ve been better. Still, if they can get their performance to match the quality of their heckler responses (inviting the offender up on stage to waltz!) then there’s no reason that BSS-Lite has to remain in the shadow of its bigger, brasher parent. But make no mistake- there’s a lot of work to be done.