After reading Ben’s post about Broken Social Scene at Northwestern from Dillo Day, I was worried that these latest “Broken Social Scene” shows were actually just Brendan Canning and Kevin Drew kind of trading off solo songs while being backed by the band and simply calling themselves Broken Social Scene.  Make no mistake about it, this show was honest-to-god Broken Social Scene, period.  Sure, they played many solo songs, but they were not afraid to light up the old classics.  Their set at the Metro lasted about two hours, and when you combine that with their one hour at Lollapalooza that same afternoon (with only 3 repeated songs), we got a whole lot of just about everything we could have wanted.  (Even if the calls for Hotel went unanswered.  Sniffle.) This band is still at absolute top form and totally awesome live.  See all of the photo goodness from the show here (although it was just our two iPhones and their bad quality photos) and hit the jump for the full review. 

While their daytime set was good, the Metro set was white hot awesomeness.  It all started on the way in to the Metro (who didn’t even open their doors until 11:00, which cut Yeasayer short), when we were standing in line behind the building by a fence, and over the fence to take a look at the crowd popped Kevin Drew’s head.  After chatting for a moment with Ben and I – and giving Ben a hi-five – he went back inside.  Once we got to the front, we see a sign tacked to the front door which read:

Yeasayer: 11:30-12:00

Broken Social Scene: 12:30-2:30

…which was just fine with me.  First up, Yeasayer:

Yeasayer was unfortunately already on the stage by the time our spot in line found its way inside, and they were once again excellent, just as in their day set at Lollapalooza.  I really enjoyed Yeasayer both times, and I hope they record something soon so I can check them out again…30 minutes (or even a full hour) is not long enough to enjoy those dudes; they are all super talented and their music is totally awesome.  (Find upcoming Yeasayer tourdates here.)  After a quick setup change, BSS takes the stage, and Kevin Drew immediately declares the Metro to be their “favorite North American venue.”  Then, they launched right into a killer KC Accidental. 

Overall, BSS played a good mix of BSS songs, Kevin Drew songs and Brendan Canning songs.  I have Kevin Drew’s Spirit If…, but I don’t have Brendan Canning’s album, which had come out that very week.  There are some excellent tracks on Spirit If…, but overall I think it is a little sub-standard when compared to the massively sweet opulence of Broken Social Scene’s Broken Social Scene (but aren’t most records pale by comparison?).  That said, his solo stuff live is really enjoyable, and they hit Farewell to the Pressure Kids, Fucked Up Kid, Backed Out On The…, and Safety Bricks, along with several others, which were all great, but I found the Canning solo stuff to be pretty hit or miss.  Some of the songs were cool live, some just seemed to be poor Phish impersonations, but take all of this with a grain of salt as I don’t have his album and have never listened to it.

The bottom line is that every song they played, the whole band seemed to be completely energized by the music.  Every song that I did know, I loved the version they played.  Every new song was tight and enjoyable as well.  They blazed through much of everyone’s favorites with Stars & Sons, Almost Crimes, Cause = Time, Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl, Ibi Dreams of Pavement, Fire Eye’d Boy, Swimmers, and Superconnected.  (The Lolla set surfaced an awesome It’s All Gonna Break, a fast (almost country?) Major Label Debut, and some sweet sweet 7/4 Shoreline action.)  At some points during the show, BSS would trot out members of Explosions in the Sky, and at one point had a full 13 people onstage by my count – all playing instruments – plus one guy in a Kangaroo costume. 

It is very difficult to compete with Broken Social Scene as far as live acts go, and they have not lost a single step since BVaz and I saw them waaaay back in 2006 in Dallas. 

Broken Social Scene – Superconnected – Broken Social Scene

Kevin Drew – Fucked Up Kid – Spirit If…