Broken Social Scene w/ Frightened Rabbit at Palace Theatre, St. Paul (28 Sept 2017)

KC Accidental 7/4 (Shoreline) Halfway Home Protest Song Fire Eye’d Boy Texico Bitches Stars and Sons Stay Happy Hug of Thunder Sweetest Kill Skyline Almost Crimes w/ Diamonds and Pearls snippet- Prince cover Major Label Debut (Fast) Cause = Time Superconnected Ibi Dreams of Pavement (A Better Day) — Encore — It’s All Gonna Break Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl Meet Me in the Basement

Frightened Rabbit Setlist

Holy Living in Colour Get Out The Modern Leper Roadless Fast Blood Head Rolls Off The Oil Slick The Woodpile Lump Street

Tour Dates

With potentially so many members on stage, we should have brought a wide-angle lens—

Canadian musical collective Broken Social Scene returned to the area, after a five-year absence, for a rousing recent show at the Palace Theatre in downtown St. Paul. 

This evening’s solid double-bill line-up began with a perfect prime-the-pump set by Scottish indie rockers Frightened Rabbit, who just released a three-song EP, appropriately titled Recorded Songs (Atlantic Records/Canvasback)-  a trio of songs that weren’t B-sides or leftovers, but fit together as this small package and gave the band something new in the marketplace, between full records. 

Early on, singer Scott Hutchison called out the “sitters” (those in the building upstairs with reserved seats vs. the open floor), cracking “I’m playing close attention to you”. 2010’s ‘Living in Colour’ got heads nodding and hands clapping in time with ‘Get Out’ the breakout song from their last album, still achingly showing the fine line between love and loss.

Hutchison remarked that is was their first time in St. Paul, after so many times on the other side of the river, and that he could tell the crowd was with them early on, instead of after a few songs in, which he and the band appreciated. 

‘Roadless’ from the EP, was the newest song played, a strumming lower tempo track with downhearted lyrics that still glimmer with a flake of hope, and the exclamation point of their set, the closing ‘Woodpile’ and ‘Lump Street’ won over new fans who will no doubt, be in attendance, at their next area headlining show. 

With an ever-rotating line-up boasting almost thirty members, the Toronto collective Broken Social Scene took to the stage with about  a third of that, for their 110-minute headlining set, going way back to 2002’s ‘KC Accidental’ to begin, in support of the new Hug of Thunder, released in July on Mom+Pop.

With vocalists Feist, Emily (Metric) Haines and Amy (Stars) Millan off doing their own projects, the female vocals opposite main vocalist Kevin Drew fell to new addition Ariel Engle (who’s also in AroarA and married to BSS’s Andrew Whiteman) with Drew commenting after ‘7/4’- “we’re already having a wonderful time, let’s do this together” eventually making his way into the crowd of the crowd and politely shaking hands (a very Canadian gesture) as he sang.

Members rotated in and out as the setlist demanded it, with as few as four and as many as nine on the stage at one time, several often trading instruments as well.  Drew spoke briefly about the band’s (and Canada’s) kinship to this country, that all things will pass, and the band believes the best is still ahead for everyone.

Multi-instrumentalist Charles Spearin came back on stage to shine on the ballad, ‘Sweetest Kill’, with Drew mentioning that he and Spearin met and had been collaborating since Drew was nineteen.  The crowd, somewhat restless during the slower songs, was a bit of a broken social scene themselves, with handfuls chatting and drinking throughout, though perplexingly still clearly fans of the band. 

Volume turned up and more members returned to the stage for 2002’s ‘Almost Crimes’ with wailing guitar by Whiteman and a great meld of dueling male/female vocals, punctuated by the horn section, who worked in a coda of ‘Prince’s ‘Diamonds and Pearls’. “We’re just gonna keep playing songs, is that ok?” Drew asked, “…too much talk these days…” as drummer Justin Pernoff then counted off ‘Cause=Time’.

Do you want the mellow, or do you want the fast” Drew asked going into the former for ‘Superconnected’, promising “we’ll change it half way through” and the main set ended with the hopeful ‘Ibi Dreams of Pavement (A Better Day)’, “We play this one for you” Drew said, also mentioning The Tragically Hip’s Gord Downie (who’s fighting a terminal cancer) has been “representing your city, wearing a First Avenue hat every day for the last two years” getting the crowd to scream his name in tribute and support.

Though they would never leave the stage, the encore portion began with a blistering ‘It’s All Gonna Break’ appropriate for the times, that still reveals a little light in the tunnel, followed by a fragile Engle-led ‘Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl’, with the band refusing to leave until one last song was done.

“Meet Me in the Basement!” one crowd member screamed, with Drew replying “…we’ll never play that one!” and “…take this song with you and put it in your back pocket for the tough times”, before diving into the anthemic instrumental, “May your lives be enjoyed more, and may they sound like this!” Drew exclaimed as the band ramped it into an explosive finish. 

With their new album, Broken Social Scene has keenly crafted a soundtrack for current times- “We’re trying to create that hug of thunder. That sound. That embrace amongst the chaos”, Drew has explained, and that was exactly the spirit of their live show as well.