With the 15th annual NXNE kicking off tonight, there were more than just a few music-filled events to choose from in Exclaim!'s home base of Toronto. However, we had a gut feeling that one show tonight would turn out to be a bit more special than the rest: the Arts & Crafts throw-down and its promise of a "surprise headliner." Well, we're happy to say our gut was right.
At about 12 a.m. local time, none other than Arts & Crafts' flagship act Broken Social Scene took the stage at the upscale Courthouse venue. And while you could have maybe predicted this from the line-up of opening acts that included Jason Collett, Years, Happiness Project and Apostle of Hustle - and in effect the bulk of the BSS crew - the real surprise was yet to come. Joining the Broken Social Scene live and on stage was the band's long-lost compadre, Feist.
As BSS fans know all too well, the ultra-loved Canadian songstress hasn't played among the band's ranks in, well, forever, and even hinted last year that she was throwing in the BSS towel. But it was fitting that Feist joined her old gang of music makers. After all, tonight was also the launch of This Book Is Broken, a book that chronicles the history and rise Broken Social Scene - something Feist was very much a part of.
So there you had it: Broken Social Scene and Feist back together once more, and a lucky crowd of onlookers that got to see a welcomed bit of history repeat itself.
For a full live review of the night's event, click here.
For the purposes of full disclosure, Exclaim! did sponsor this shindig, as did the folks of Fred Perry.
UPDATE: Here's the BSS setlist, courtesy of fan message board Broken Telephone:
"World Sick"
"7/4 (Shoreline)"
"Forced"
"Love Is New"
"Your Hate"
"Small Big"
"Fucked Up Kid"
"New Country"
"Fire Eye'd Boy"
"Almost Crimes"
"Major Label Debut"
"Meet Me in the Basement"
At about 12 a.m. local time, none other than Arts & Crafts' flagship act Broken Social Scene took the stage at the upscale Courthouse venue. And while you could have maybe predicted this from the line-up of opening acts that included Jason Collett, Years, Happiness Project and Apostle of Hustle - and in effect the bulk of the BSS crew - the real surprise was yet to come. Joining the Broken Social Scene live and on stage was the band's long-lost compadre, Feist.
As BSS fans know all too well, the ultra-loved Canadian songstress hasn't played among the band's ranks in, well, forever, and even hinted last year that she was throwing in the BSS towel. But it was fitting that Feist joined her old gang of music makers. After all, tonight was also the launch of This Book Is Broken, a book that chronicles the history and rise Broken Social Scene - something Feist was very much a part of.
So there you had it: Broken Social Scene and Feist back together once more, and a lucky crowd of onlookers that got to see a welcomed bit of history repeat itself.
For a full live review of the night's event, click here.
For the purposes of full disclosure, Exclaim! did sponsor this shindig, as did the folks of Fred Perry.
UPDATE: Here's the BSS setlist, courtesy of fan message board Broken Telephone:
"World Sick"
"7/4 (Shoreline)"
"Forced"
"Love Is New"
"Your Hate"
"Small Big"
"Fucked Up Kid"
"New Country"
"Fire Eye'd Boy"
"Almost Crimes"
"Major Label Debut"
"Meet Me in the Basement"