It always happens like this. I will go a month without seeing a show, then all of a sudden I get three in one week. They’re always so close together. It’s as if the musicians I like are conspiring against me. It’s crazy to travel to New York City three times in one week, for only a couple of hours, to get home at crazy early times in the morning and try to wake up the next day for work as if it were any other day. But I do it because I like the music. I do it because it’s my therapy. I do it because, other than buying their album, there isn’t a better way to support your favorite musicians that don’t make millions of dollars because they aren’t U2. I already wrote about Final Fantasy, once I recovered from the loss of sleep, but I didn’t update on Broken Social Scene (which happened Wednesday night) or Love of Diagrams (which I just came home from, and although I’d really like to update from the train what I really like to do on the train is nap).
Before I even get into what I thought about Kevin Drew’s shindig, I wanted to mention that sometimes I have this crazy idea in my head that people who like the same music as I do are similar to me. It’s far-fetched, I know, but sometimes I like to imagine that people that listen to Broken Social Scene can be somewhat reserved when attending shows, but still have the capacity to rock out in a nonthreatening way. I think, I can keep to my designated space and not shout out rude remarks, yet clap and yell out in approval when I feel it’s necessary. But, no. No. This is not so. I am surprised by some of Broken Social Scene’s fans… two fans in particular that I had to share the front row with (and what, by the way, is with the rail in front of the stage that was not there last time I attended a Webster Hall show? Is it just for space between the audience and the stage or is it for the press to come in and take pictures? I’m so confused!). To start with, they began asking everyone in the general vicinity with a wristband to by them a drink. Then they started taking pictures of themselves and asked me to take a picture of them which turned out dreadful, and I think they agreed. And, as the show started, any guy on stage that they found attractive they would shout out that he was hot, in addition to other comments that I’d rather forget. Is this what Broken Social Scene fans are supposed to do? I guess I’m doing it all wrong. In any case, enough about that. Looks like they had a great time with the one beer they were able to snag.
I don’t like to say bad things about Kevin Drew & Co. But, these really aren’t bad things, and I’m not going to go on about the same things I did in my last post about them. Kevin Drew was very entertaining and I could see that he was trying to keep up with audience awareness and participation and I really like when artists do that. I’ve noticed a trend, though, that with each BSS show I’ve seen, it seems like it’s less passionate or less… something. With all the special guests, it didn’t make up for the fact that something seemed missing. I guess you could argue that it’s not Broken Social Scene I went to see, but when you have core members and essentially bill it as a BSS show, that idea in the back of my mind is there. It’s a BSS show. It seemed more like Broken Social Scene-lite. I hate saying that, because they remain one of my favorite bands. Seriously, the first time I saw them I was so overwhelmed by what I saw on stage that I could only relate it to some sort of spiritual experience. (In fact, I was so overwhelmed that I stayed in NYC too late and missed the last train to Connecticut and walked around in the freezing cold until my Dad actually came and picked me up. I got sick the next day with a cold. Go figure) But each show after that has been less and less spectacular and I don’t know if I should blame myself — that I put such a standard on them — or if Kevin Drew is less passionate about it all and just wants to put out records and make his name more recognizable. Or, is it all of the above?
Back to the show, there were some highlights — it was a mixture of BSS songs and solo songs. I missed the encore, because I jetted right after Scott Kannenberg played Kennel District, and in doing so missed Emily Haines sing Anthems…. (something I’ve already witnessed, in above mentioned superreligiousspectularBSSshow) I really like Emily Haines, she’s got a great energy to her. I was looking through Flickr at some of the photos of the shows, and one of the captions was “doesn’t Emily turn you on?” or something to that effect, and that’s just it. I think she turns guys and girls (regardless of orientation) on just the same. I think that’s all part of what was missing from BSS lately, and that’s because I hadn’t seen Emily or Feist play in the last two shows, and I think that that feminine energy is really needed. Not just about sexual energy, but about balancing out the maleness. I hope that doesn’t come off as super ultra militant feminist, because I’m not one. I’m just saying that balance is missing and I want it back. And I’m sorry for rambling on about this, because it’s really not important in the grand scheme of things — but what is that I’ve written about so far?
I do have some photos up on Flickr, although I’m not too crazy about them. I have a video up as well:
Superconnected I’m really glad that they played this. This video is the extended version of the song, with some banter in the beginning. Some highlights are: around the 4:20 mark Kevin Drew starts walking the stage in circles. And, you’ll notice around the 6 minute mark that Brendan Canning does these amazing rock god poses in front of the blaring light that comes off as kinda cheesey and kinda of WOW I’m glad I got that because it’s just really amusing.
As for Love of Diagrams, I’m not going to go into all these weird things in the back of my mind — because there really aren’t any when it comes to this band. I just think that they’re rockin’. Just some guitars and a good beat and simple lyrics and rock. And sometimes that is all I need. Everything else is too complicated.