With a Broken Social Scene tour it’s difficult to know what to expect, with an ever swelling number and line-up of members it must be nearly impossible to work out their set lists let alone organise a tour beside so many commitments to other projects.
Originally billed as a Kevin Drew gig this show was then advertised as a Broken Social performance and expectations were raised with the presence of two BSS spin-off groups in the country – Stars and Feist. The Laneway festival had given the Melbourne punters a chance to catch this collision in force with BSS turning in one of the day’s highlights with Feist assistance. Though both Feist and Stars were underwhelming in their own sets, Feist choosing to play a gentle set unsuited for a festival appearance and Stars struggling with sound issues and managing a mere three tunes in their timeslot.
But any hopes for a repeat of the onstage BSS alumni convention are dashed with Feist playing in Perth and Stars already up in Sydney. So without girls or horns this gig becomes a blokey, purely guitar driven set that is essentially Broken Social presents Kevin Drew’s new songs with a few back catalogue pieces and a hefty dose of new stuff. Many newer songs in the set that will presumably feature on the forthcoming second instalments of the ‘Broken Social present’ series to be headed by Brendan Canning. There may be a focus on new material as a result of the difficulty of getting the group together for a pre tour rehearsal, but rather than playing a tired and dismissive set the tour weary, sleep deprived gang managed a two hour set of thrilling highs even with their awkward confusion between songs.
Opening the bill Belles Will Ring offered a serviceable though fairly uninspiring set marred by the flat attempts at harmonising by the dual lead singers. Rather than complimenting each other they sound like they’re competing for front man position especially when they trade guitar/tambourine solos on the set closer Mad Love.
BSS also work without a clearly defined front man, but their free flowing style and make up is far more complimentary than competitive. Tonight Drew is the nominal front man as they’re touring his record, but the vocal duties are well shared by the members of the group. Brendan Canning and Andrew Whiteman – the Apostle of Hustle – took turns behind the mic.
Without Fiest there’s no 7/4(Shoreline) – the crescendo of their Laneway show just days earlier – though more surprisingly one of the highlights of Drew’s recent Sprit If… record TBTF is also absent from the volume stretching setlist. Joking that they’re supposed to get quieter as they go on BSS seem to be on a mission to prove otherwise. While they’re lacking on the girls and horns element, guitars are heavily represented with the band often employing five at a time to blaze away on shouters like Backed Out On The… .
There’s no off stage band discussion about encore numbers as the evening essentially becomes a band meeting debate on which songs to play, false starts and general ‘setlist issues’. It’s a shambles that dissolves once they decide what to play. The punters are treated to the guest presence of Spiral Stairs, of Pavement and Preston School of Industry fame, who added yet another guitar to the mix for sprightly Water in Hell, though Drew took up duties behind the drums.
A closing speech/ramble from Drew warns the crowd about the spread of mononucleosis in our city following their tour before he drops in a series of local references like an international stand-up showing off his first night research. We’re advised to make sure Corey doesn’t become our PM and to ask for more apologies. Despite the often confused and ramshackle proceedings on stage tonight it would take a fickle man to ask for an apology from BSS.
As Kevin Drew had noted earlier Melbourne town seems to be in the grip of a late summer musical frenzy with a fully booked gig diary to rival any city in the world. As they admit tonight may not be the most organised or impressive of those gigs, but as a glimpse into the workings of the BSS it’s a memorable night. Hopefully when they return – they promise it’ll be less than the two years since their last tour – they’ll bring the girls and horns but lose none of the scattered life of tonight’s show. Though Canning warns that two years is a long time and there’s always the possibility that they will have moved on from the guitar onslaught to playing 808s – unlikely, but with BSS who could even say who’ll be in that band come that next trip.
