Beautiful Social Scene

It was the Canadian concert of the year (note the absence of qualifiers such as "free", "summer", or "Toronto"). In retribution for scheduling a Toronto Island concert, and subsequently canceling when realizing the date conflicted with the noisy Indy, Broken Social Scene performed a free show at the Harbourfront Center. The lovely and adequately-named venue was at least three times too small, as hordes of music lovers ranging from hipsters to rockers literally jammed the entire space from stage-front to the water. Despite the cramped quarters you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who didn't walk away amazed by the band who fittingly represent the Toronto indie-scene, in part because the collective has members in some of the most successful bands going.

Kevin Drew
In a role reversal of the Spirit If album, which is "Broken Social Scene Presents Kevin Drew" this evening was "Kevin Drew presents Broken Social Scene" as he played ringleader for the indie rock on-stage circus (in addition to killing it on guitar). The band played a splendid version of Kevin's Frightening Lives from Spirit If too. As a core member of the group he had the enviable job of introducing the cornucopia of musical royalty who took this night from special to epic. Rather than prolonging the hoping and wondering of the crowd, he waited only two songs (a new song, and Fire-Eyed Boy) before welcoming Ms. Leslie Feist...

Feist
This beloved lady garnered a huge response from the crowd as she stepped out to sing 7/4 Shoreline. It was not an entirely unexpected guest feature as she'd joined BSS at NXNE a couple weeks ago, and from the beginning they'd been promising us an extra special show. (Plus when heading to a BSS show doesn't the talk of who will be present always swirl?) Later on in the show there was a gorgeous acoustic medley of Feist's Past in Present and I Feel It All. She also picked up some drumstick to bang away on the second kit for more than a couple tracks, in addition to busting out her wonderfully dorky dancing. Oh, and so much more, including lovely female duets and triplets.. including Ms. Amy Millan of

Stars
Amy took the stage to perform what I presume to be a song from her up-coming second solo release. It was an incredible vocal performance as most of the artists went backstage and Amy sang solely with percussive accompaniment. Fellow Star, Evan Cranley (yes Cranley's Gonna Make It) was all over the stage playing a host of instruments all evening. Unfortunately Torq (Campbell also of Stars) wasn't in attendance despite often playing in the BSS brass section, probably because he resides in Vancouver and this show was rather Toronto-centred. Amy's voice was great as she appeared very happy to be there but perhaps not as obviously energetic as the bounding Ms. Emily Haines.

Metric
James (Jimmy) Shaw was already on stage (I believe) when bandmate Emily Haines came out to the screams of adoring fans. Shooting up even further in popularity recently after their self-released Fantasies album, Metric have a huge following and Emily is at the focal point. She sang on a very, laid-back version of the Metric single Gimme Sympathy. She stuck around and bounced around the stage, dancing and singing (simultaneously without holding back on either) for the rest of the show. Now with all the prominent females (plus the also-amazing touring female vocalist, Lisa Lobsinger) from Broken Social Scene's storied history present on-stage together (how many years has it been?) there was a euphoric rendition of the simply beautiful Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl that featured Julie Penner on violin. Emily was also at the forefront singing along when Mr. Jason Collett had his turn in the spotlight.

Jason Collett
Perhaps my favourite song of this BSS show was not a Broken Social Scene song at all, but Jason Collett's I'll Bring the Sun. An excellent summery tune in it's own right, when flushed out by the now 13 or so musicians playing together it took on a new strength. The crashing ending saw thirteen separate musical entities turning from the crowd into their own worlds to combine for one ultimate song meltdown. It was utterly awesome.

Apostle of Hustle
Andrew Whiteman is perhaps my favourite guitarist in the band - and when there's 4 to 5 guitarists at any given moment that's saying something. He is another so-called 'core' member and had been playing from the get-go but was also afforded the opportunity to showcase a tune from the May-released Eats Darkness. Admittedly his Apostle of Hustle music doesn't usually turn my crank, but this was an enjoyable rendition of Soul Unwind.

Brendan Canning
As always the bearded Brendan Canning was a force on guitar and played strong the entire night including a couple from his BSS Presents too. One of the founding members and creative forces behind BSS he usually allows his guitar to speak for him during live shows and this night was no exception.

Happiness Project
I'm not sure that any of the songs from Charles Spearin's Happiness Project were played amongst the handful of songs that I didn't recognize (and I assume to be new BSS material, recording under way) - but Charles was definitely contributing all night long in bringing happiness to the throngs of music lovers in attendance. The female contingent opened up the show's final track, Bandwitch, with their Oh Oh Oh uh Oh Oh Ohs. It wasn't, of course, the actual last song and I could go on and on about it, as the show did - with a total of four encores (one track each) but words cannot do justice to this show that transcended my high expectations. As KC Accidental ended I'd known I'd witnessed something special, and the absolute final encore - a fast version of Major Label Debut - cemented this show as one to go down in Toronto indie history.