30 August 2008 :: it's like a rock-em-sock-em robot back there

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The Top Ten Things about Seeing Broken Social Scene’s Second Gig at the Corner Hotel in Richmond in Melbourne in Australia


10. Realizing that Kevin Drew (the guy who does most of the lead-singer-style vocals, like on “Ibi Dreams of Pavement,” “Major Label Debut,” and “KC Accidental”) doesn’t just have great rock hair, but also has this huge vocal range (he sang falsetto back-up harmonies on “Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl” – see #6) that you don’t notice on the records due to Newfeld’s studio tricks and studio shroud of anonymity. In other words: “Kevin Drew can actually sing.” The albums downplay his talent, almost unjustly.

9. Blurting outloud about Charles Spearin: “That guy looks like Lanny McDonald!,” and then having to explain to my two colleagues not only who Lanny McDonald is, but also about Wayne Gretzky, and eventually Clint Malarchuk, too, when asked about whether hockey is dangerous because everyone wearing roller blades with metal on the bottoms.

By the way this is Lanny McDonald:



This is Charles Spearin, on the left (next to Kevin Drew – note his hair):




8. Realizing during her opening set that New Buffalo’s new material sounds fantastic. Also seeing Melbourne’s sampler-magician-prince Mountains in the Sky (John Lee) manage Sally’s electronics while she played keys, guitar, and sang. Also remembering how Lee also played a fantastic DJ set at the St. Jerome’s Laneway festival 4 days prior, sort of reducing headliner The Hold Steady to an afterthought. And back to Sally: ok, she’s got like this one new song where it’s just her and an electric guitar and it’s kind of like twangy and sort of country and really sounds like it may have been written for Loretta Lynn. And for once during a soft-spoken set the entire crowd at the Corner actually just shut up and listened to the opening act. Which they never do, not even for Sam Beam. And, also, when Sally plays live she hits all of her high notes eerily perfectly (see “Come Back” from The Last Beautiful Day) and, generally, is a treat to watch. But I’m a fan, as you know, if you’ve ever visited this site before.

7. Guest appearances during Broken Social Scene’s set: Architecture in Helsinki (most predominately the trombone), Ground Components, New Buffalo sharing vocals with Lisa Lobsinger on “Major Label Debut” and, somehow, Spiral Stairs from Pavement (on “Ibi Dreams of Pavement,” at that). No kidding.

6. Andrew Whiteman, unfortunately also known as “Apostle of Hustle,” played, I think, “My Country Tis of Thee” as a guitar solo during “Our Faces Split the Coast in Half,” I think. Can I also please add that Whiteman’s axe work during both this show and the Laneway fest may be some of the best guitar-soloing that I’ve ever heard live, especially considering that it’s an endless struggle for any one instrument to climb to the top register of Broken Social Scene’s towering walls of sound, which, in turn, makes Whiteman that much more impressive. Fact: for days after the show, people were wandering around Richmond saying “Did you see the axe work on that guy?” and “Bloody good axe work the other night, strewth” and “I wish I had that guy’s axe work, if you know what I mean.” It should also be noted that, since Monday, people have stopped using the term “axe work” altogether, everywhere.

5. 36% of Brendan Canning (little guy, big red beard, singer on “Stars and Sons”) is covered by facial hair, and 23% actually is facial hair. And notwithstanding this obvious impediment to both vision and balance, he was still able to manage six high-kicks while playing bass despite the fact that there were so many people on stage that he could have caused any other member of the band to lose an eye had he miscalculated the physiokinetics of any single one of his high kicks. He is the Nadia Comaneci of indie rock.

4. During New Buffalo’s most fantastic song, “Recovery,” Kevin Drew, Charles Spearin (Lanny McDonald, captain of the 1988 Stanley Cup Champion Calgary Flames, large mustache), James Shaw, and one of the other guys from Broken Social Scene (sorry) came out on stage with Mountains in the Sky and played shakers and maracas in staggered, complicated, complementary Lost African Rhythms that were at times in varying time signatures. They expertly performed this feat as if they had practiced the routine for weeks prior to the tour, just for this special moment. Or, they were drunk and lucky.

3. Only once, during “Shoreline,” did I care that Feist wasn’t there. But when newly-appointed band member Lisa Lobsinger, who prompted this conversation: Tohi: “Wow she’s cute”; Aaron: “Yeah but she’s so solemn”; Tohi: “She’s very cute, though”; Aaron: “Her hair is pretty big”; Tohi: “Exactly,” bored holes into the back of the bar with ice-queen eyes during “Anthems of a Teenage Girl,” all the while she unwaveringly repeating the teasing lyric/command “dream about me,” thereby adding an entirely new level of theatre to the song simply by pouting and not blinking, well, I sort of stopped nitpicking after that (but still: “Shoreline” is nothing without Feist’s line-spinning vocal inflections, just listen to the mp3 and see how she curls her crackling falsetto around the end of each line in the verses, it makes the song). While no one can do Feist like Feist, Lisa’s performance on this one song (not a Feist song, minor detail) earned her the loudest caterwauling round of applause of the evening, plus whistling. “Shoreline” needs perk, but “Anthems” cannot get better than Lobsinger’s version.

2. The pizzas at the Corner Hotel kitchen/pub upstairs are really good, and this prompted Kevin Drew to pause in the middle of the performance and specifically thank tour manager Dave Chatfield of Handsome Tours for buying dinner for the entire band before the show. Only the most sincere acts of gratitude could ever be contemplated for the coveted #2 place on this list, so I hope that helps communicate a special, profound feel for how touching this one particular moment truly was.

1. Before the show started I met three, somewhat large, frat-esque guys from Calgary who were “just having a good time at the pub.” They asked me to take their photo for them. At the end of the show, Kevin Drew and Charles Spearin climbed down off the stage and into the crowd and randomly hugged people in the first six or seven rows. Normally these two events would be unrelated. Tonight, however, would be the night that the three boys from Calgary (home of the 1989 Stanley Cup Champion Calgary Flames, Captained by Charles Spearin himself) would - obviously deeply moved by Broken Social Scene’s 90-minute set plus encore that contravened municipal noise laws - push, grab, stomp, grope, and buck their way towards Kevin Drew, from the far side of the venue, through a tightly-packed crowd of mostly girlfriend/boyfriend combinations, and with absolutely no regard for whose sandaled-feet they might offend, all so that they might each hug their new Rock Gods, run their fingers through their Rock God hair (even “noogie,” in one brief instance), and further document their evening of fine popular arts and culture. And while that seems like a dumb-ass adolescent type thing that results in flag burnings and, worse, nasty cartoon strips satirizing Gord Downie, it actually went down without one hint of retaliation from the invaded crowd. In fact, everyone completely understood.

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