Concerts at record stores suck, you just can’t see if you are not front row, and if you want to be front row, you have to camp out for hours in front of the store! I remember 3 years ago when Macca came to this place, there were people out there with camping tents three days before the show! It was completely insane. I managed to get in the day of the concert, and I hardly saw Paul, but short Ringo (who was in the public too!) could not see either since he had the same difficulties than me to see above the vinyl holders.
They are very organized now at Amoeba, they used to be more laid back and let people pack inside the way they wanted. They probably had some problems with security and now they let people enter only15 by 15 and direct them to an aisle. Way too organized for me, I like to find my way through the crowd to reach the stage, no way this time, absolutely no freedom!
I am pretty much uneducated when it comes to Broken Social Scene, I just know they are a band of many people with a varied size according to the venues, quite popular in the Indie scene, and that’s was about it till tonight. I just had a very vague idea of their music, baroque style as they say on Wikipedia, on the cacophonic side, with a lot of sounds mixed with each other due to an abundance of musical instruments.
Most people waiting for concerts are occupied text messaging whatever they are alone or not and they even continue during the show, something I will never comprehend. The place was packed and Broken Social Scene arrived really on time. They were 6-7 or sometimes 8 on stage, depending on the song and seemed to be totally at ease, joking at one point about Justin Bieber with the public.
They played 10 songs plus one as an encore, and I don’t think I’m wrong to say most of them are from their last album, quite a treat for a free show. Please forgive me if you’re a fan, I tried to play a little game once home, I went to their website and tried to remember what I had heard and guessed the titles of the songs. So I’m pretty sure they played ‘All to all,’ ‘Forced to Love,’ ‘Tixaco Bitches,’ “Water in Hell,’ ‘Meet me in the Basement,’ and may be ‘Sweetest Kill.’ Is it only me or there is some Rolling stones/Mick Jagger influence on ‘Water in Hell’? May be it was just the way he sang it, with a lot of woo-wooo. The public was really into them, frenetically clapping and dancing at times, whereas people around me were more restrained, probably a little disappointed to be so far away from the stage.
Broken Social Scene’s sound is big and powerful and I particularly liked the horn sections on some songs, and the drum on ‘All to all’ especially. Being a complete BSS illiterate, it was difficult to totally appreciate their music under the live treatment, it needs to grow on me. But they seemed to have so much fun on stage and I must admit their enthusiasm was very communicative. Above everything, a band which has so many fervent fans must do everything right.