Broken Social Scene / Feist

With the noble reason of helping a family friend with medical bills, Broken Social Scene triumphantly returned to the myth that has entranced the media: struggling musician friends coming together for the sake of music and fun, rather than playing for their supper or fame. Opener Feist, all lovely voice, lone guitar and slinky attire, eschewed the bulk of her newest album, Let It Die, in favour of earlier songs, but this added to the "off the cuff" atmosphere, culminating in the BSS members singing the chorus to one of her songs, albeit from their various scattered positions in the venue. After the low-key appetiser, BSS appeared and confidently launched into the first of many new songs, "Ibi Dreams of Pavement." Indeed indicative of Pavement, it, along with the jerky rock of "7/4," whetted the appetite for their new album. As for the live performance, many great epiphanies were had during an energetic "Almost Crimes," a rousing "Cause = Time," the brief inclusion of Guided By Voices' "Glad Girls" and the luscious set-closing "Lover's Spit," with Leslie Feist returning to woo us again. There was a mid-set pause for improvisation with pulses, samples and keyboards very similar to the experiments on the current Beehives record, which did drag, but even these experiments added to the loose nature of the night. Although lacking in the energy and tightness of a regular show, the looseness and relaxed nature just brought forth another, maybe forgotten, facet of the band, which is the promise of great music coming together, intangibly, through a meeting of similar musically-minded people. A good cause and a good time, the concert shows that the future of Broken Social Scene is more cohesive than ever before, and, incredibly, it only took a quiet, unassuming gig to affirm it.