By day four, this CMJ hound needed a bit of a rest – which, in CMJ terms, means I went to one show instead of five. Truthfully, the one show was likely better than any combination of five, as it featured everyone’s favorite obscenely huge Canadian collective, Broken Social Scene.

Broken Social Scene kept it Canadian when choosing an opener, Montreal’s Land of Talk. The tinny, girl-fronted garage-rock three piece gave a respectable performance, but it was clear the audience was itching for what badge holders arrived insanely early for, and what ticket payers coughed up big bucks for.

It was clear early on that Kevin Drew (seen above), the closest thing Broken Social Scene has to a frontman, was in an especially feisty (pun intended) mood. Before “Cause=Time” (which he forgot the words to) he quipped, “Here’s another one we’ve been playing in your city for the past four years of our lives.” A few songs later he was markedly more agitated, which naturally peaked at the early-career fan favorite, “Anthems For A Seventeen-Year-Old Girl,” before which he announced, “This is one of the last times we’re going to play this.” At one point he said, “The is one of our favorites,” then left the stage. As the night progressed, he changed from complaining about how many times they’d the songs to stating, after every song, that the show was over.

Broken Social Scene, “Cause=Time” (download)

Drew’s rants aside, no one might’ve thought the band was tired of the material. Brendan Canning alone is still a joy to watch, in part because he looks like someone’s cool hippie father, and in part because of his fondness for high karate kicks at the punchiest parts of songs. The brass section served as the cheerleaders for the evening, whooping and gesticulating to rile up the audience every time they took the stage. (more…)