LCIV EPISODE 7 | "THIS EPISODE IS BROKEN"

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Broken Social Scene @ LMC

BSS @ LMH  Photo by: Brittknee Withikaye

Intern Reporting...
 
On a frosty Sunday evening in London, Ontario, the legendary Toronto-based indie band Broken Social Scene played the London Music Hall, gracing their fans with an epic set that gave the crowd just what they needed. The following is a tale not about how awesome B.S.S. is, because you know this, but rather how I ran three kilometers in the wrong direction, just barely making it to the venue to catch the last hour of heart-throbbing musical magic. 

  Let me explain. The night began with cab ride from my apartment near University campus all the way downtown to the Call The Office, where I foolishly ASSUMED the concert would be held. Don’t ask me why I assumed it was there, because I can’t answer that...a mental lapse. I ask the bouncer to check my name off the guest-list, he responds with a puzzled look on his face, “What’s Broken Social Scene? And what guest list …?” I instantly realize I ‘m at the wrong bar and the band I’m trying to see is about to hit the stage, elsewhere. “F*#K!!” I turn back to see if my cab driver was still there, but he was gone into the snow covered distance. 

  It’s 10:30 PM, I’m outside Call The Office, “Where’s this band playing?” I asked myself. Anyone I could have contacted about the show, was probably already inside the venue, unable to answer a phone call or text message. I pull out my cell-phone from my pocket and Google Search ‘Broken Social Scene, Jan 16 2011, the results point me in what I think to be the right direction, The London Music Hall. I enter the address into my Google Maps application on my phone and start running in the direction it points me in. 

 

  It’s 10:50 PM, I’ve been jogging for nearly 20 minutes and I think I’ve finally made it the venue. I take a minute to catch my breath and look back to my phone to see where the Music Hall should be because I couldn’t see it in front of me, just a bunch of deserted factory buildings. At this time, I make the shockingly frustrating discovery that there are TWO London Music Halls (Okay! One Music Club) in London, Ontario and I had just run for 20 minutes to the wrong one, nearly 5 kilometers in the wrong direction! After a couple of hot curses muttered under frosty breath, I finally call a cab to get me where I needed to go.

  After a relatively quick, yet equally embarrassing cab ride I find myself at the right London Music Hall, which is ironically much closer to my house than even Call The Office.

  It’s 11:30 pm, I hop out of the cab and hurry inside. I ask a bouncer if I’m at the right place and he says, “Yes, but the show’s just about over.” He tells me I can go in to catch the last few minutes.

  I finally made it! The warmth of the music instantly relaxed me and helped me forget the troubles I had been through just to make it. Even though I walked in more than halfway through the show, I still felt so happy to have made it in the end. Broken Social Scene continued to play past mid-night, encore after encore after encore, working to please every last fan, myself included. I left with a smile on my face and a sense of content, made all the more powerful because of my journey earlier that night. 

J FRANK, INTERN | BDM

BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE | ISLAND SHOW

There’s happiness, there’s ecstasy and then there's the feeling you get when you go see Broken Social Scene in concert. For those of you who’ve caught these Indie- juggernauts from TO live, you know you’re always at a loss of words when describing what you’ve just taken in. As for those who haven’t seen them...well if you want to see an overwhelming orchestra of organic alt-rock, if you want to hear songs that will have you conflicting the conception of reality and what’s all around you, if you want hear the sound of a city, watch something like nothing else on earth, and reach a stage of noise-Nirvana, go see Broken Social Scene.

Back on June 19th, BSS returned to the Toronto Islands with a bunch of friends to give fans what they have long been waiting for. It’s been five years since the group released their self-titled hit, and they were more than excited to share their new release, Forgiveness Rock Record.

Following acts like Beach House and Band of Horses(who both performed incredibly entertaining sets but were simply blown away by the phenomenon that is BSS’ live show ) BSS were proud to share their new record with fans. Not shying away from the old hits; “7/4 Shoreline”, “Lover’s Spit”, “Stars and Sons”, “Cause=Time”, BSS offered almost a dozen songs off the 14-track new LP. This was an island you wouldn’t mind being stranded on.

As mentioned, since the boys and girls in Broken Social Scene were home they opened their little black books and called up everyone in it. Musicians from other Canadian bands like Metric, Death From Above 1979 and The Stills joined the crew, and even everyone’s favourite, Feist was even on stage a fair amount. In fact, at one point I counted 17 people on stage rocking out, singing, hugging and laughing! Trombones, Trumpets (plural, very plural!), Violins, basses, Guitars(sometimes four or five going!), drums and percussion, tambourines, bass, and even a French Horn.

BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE | TORONTO ISLAND TEASER from BDM on Vimeo.

It was a party! A party thrown by Broken Social Scene, who couldn’t have been better hosts to thousands of strangers. Strangers who didn’t hesitate to jump on a fairy and cross lake Ontario(and pay $10 for a Burger!). Strangers who didn’t feel like strangers. They felt like family. They felt like they were a part of something. Something uplifting and powerful. Something that cannot be described. So stop reading my ramble and go see them for yourself. There is no possible way you will be disappointed. There is no possible way you will be the same person afterward.

-Josh "The Intern" Hoffman, BDM

BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE | JOSH HOFFMAN