Photo by Norman Wong
Broken Social Scene are less of a band and more of a family. That is simply one of the best ways to describe their dynamic.
Over thirty years ago founding members Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning met in 1999, since then they have been collecting members, with the latest addition being Hannah Gerogas who joined for vocals on their latest record, ‘Remember the Humans’
This September they played at Manchester’s Academy 1, on their ‘All the Feelings’ Tour with fellow Canadian band and friends Metric.
I would love to say that the return to Manchester for Broken Social Scene was perfect in every way, but as is life, certain things went wrong. The first came from their second track of the evening. After opening with ‘Cause = Time’ from their second album, the band played ‘Sweetest Kill’ which is one of the band’s classic tracks, during the track, Drew hurt his ears resulting in a change to the setlist and a more sombre evening.
“Let’s do it basement style!” Drew remarks, met with a laugh and a cheer from this Manchester crowd. Following a stripped back version of ‘Superconnected’, the enigmatic frontman leaves the stage.
Returning with ear defenders for fan favourite ‘7/4 Shoreline’, “`Let’s give it a go see if this is better” Drew laughs. It’s during Shoreline that I take a moment to immerse myself in the surroundings, not only is there at least 15 people on stage, but the crowd seem to rather different than that of normal Manc crowds.
Made up of a diverse crowd of an older and younger generation, Broken Social Scene seem to be the sort of band that parents have fallen in love with and passed the love down to their children, but what really strikes me is the lack of phones recording, which is a rarity in today’s world. It is purely a crowd in the moment and loving every second.
About an hour or so before they take the stage themselves, Metric frontwoman Emily Haines and guitarist James Shaw are brought out for ‘Anthems for a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl’. This is possibly the melancholiest moment of the evening, the crowd instead of belting the lyrics back which I’m sure they could do, just soak it all in and enjoy every moment of it.
For the final song of the evening, they play ‘KC Accidental’ with all members of the band all playing their hearts out for one last time, it feels like the perfect song that encapsulates all the band is about, family and friendship being at the core of everything.
It was a long wait for Broken Social Scene’s return to Manchester, but after what I saw, I truly hope I don’t have to wait anywhere near as long to see them again.
