Last night's show.

As mentioned, last night I went to see Broken Social Scene at the Canopy Club in Urbana. I had seen them two summers ago, on a triple bill with Ted Leo + the Pharmacists and Belle & Sebastian at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD. I don't think I can overemphasize how bad the sound was during the BSS part of the show, and I walked away not seeing what others saw in them. So when I saw they were coming to the Canopy, a much smaller venue, I resolved to give them another shot.

First up on this night was Arthur & Yu,
(excuse the blurry cell phone photography, but I assure you, that's them) from Seattle, who were good, in a Bright Eyes sort of way. Very earnest, melodic. They were good enough that I picked up their cd to give it a closer listen.

After Arthur & Yu had done their thing, it was time for the main attraction:

I know, I know- you want to buy me a new camera phone? Anyways, after some vocal exercises (very important for both audience AND band, I promise you), Broken Social Scene rocked the Canopy Club HARD! Okay, well it wasn't "hard rock" or anything, but it was pretty damn excellent. While it wasn't the full blown band (there were only the core five, plus Andrew Kenny from American Analog Set guesting on keyboards), they didn't seem to miss a beat, and seemed like they were genuinely having a great time playing with each other- when was the last time you saw a whole band have fun on stage, I ask you?

Anyways, this is where the review falls apart, since I'm not knowledgeable enough to tell you what songs they played from what albums. They did play several Kevin Drew solo songs, and one from Brendan Canning's upcoming solo album. The rest of the set I'm guessing was pretty well spread amongst the rest of the albums. I'm working on rectifying this lack of knowledge, as I did pick up "You Forgot It In People" at the show and was listening to it while working today.

It's fair to say that BSS proved themselves worthy of the second chance, and I'll definitely check them out again, as you should when they come to your town.