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