Broken Social Scene are playing at the Zoo in Brisbane next month with New Buffalo. I've heard mixed reports about their live prowess from various unreliable sources, but i've frrrrricken loved all their records, so what's y'all's take? Also, the tickets are kinda expensive. Is this a must see?

must see

I've seen them a couple of times and they put on a great show. Full of energy.

Great show. The bad reviews you've heard are from mixed up people.

I have never seen a bad BSS performance, in fact they usually get me going more than most bands these days.

They're great live

If you haven't already heard enough, I'll add to the strongly positive reviews of their live show---definitely go.

they've twice not impressed me live.

the first time, they played after jason collett and metric, whom both blew me away. the songs were okay, but nothing seemed to gel. it was like 9 people playing on separate planets. and they were way too jammy for my liking. they made bad jokes about how much the tickets were and how we shouldn't clap during some song because it was in 5/7ths and we'd inevitably fuck up if we weren't paying attention. "listen, pal, i paid $12 for this show and i'll clap whenever i want to!" i walked out before the encore. (oh, and i got in a bad car accident the next day and have always tied everything about that weekend together. maybe it wasn't so bad, but i don't look back on it fondly.)

then i saw them at intonation over the summer and it was the same story. they didn't look or sound like a band. it was like they couldn't all get on the same page, unless they were talking about the arrests in new york and the police brutality or whatever. and amy millan looked like she'd rather be anywhere other than there.

it's certainly possible that i've seen their only two mediocre shows ever, but not very likely. and if you frrrrricken love a band, you'll forgive the little things that i bitch about and probably walk out thinking it was tip-top.

(i felt like natural mike in this post.)

i'm not really a fan of them and i mostly went to see feist who opened up for them. i stayed for like 5 songs and then left. the only thing i liked was that people kept coming and going off stage.

I sam them at Cornell in 2003 and some of the troupe was missing, but they put on an exciting show nonetheless. The one thing I noticed was their enthusiasm, something other bands lack in a live setting.

I've seen them three times I think.

Just after the release of YFIIP. A year or so later. And last summer.

I've always enjoyed them. Next to Stars, they're one of my favorite acts I've seen in the last three years.


In an interview I read, Kevin Drew says the next album is going to be back to the small time. No more 14 members and big songs over songs. They'll whittle it back to the five or six of them.

So this is probably your last chance to see the big band.

i saw bss at a small venue in 2003 and absolutely loved the show. the band was full of energy and really tight. i walked away from that show an even bigger fan than when i had walked in.

i was at that same show as z this summer and i consider myself a bigger bss fan than he is and i still wasn't impressed with their performance. i felt like it was sloppy and insincere.

so, i'm no help. i personally wouldn't pay to see them again, but if you haven't seen them before, it might be worth it.

That's good to hear. I just got tickets for their show here in a couple of weeks.

broken social scene was beyond great when i saw them.

I saw them in State College w/ Amy right after YFIIP came out, and I wish I knew what song they let her do solo. I imagine it's a Stars song, but who knows. I wonder if anyone has any guesses.

I would rather see Do Make Say Think, however.

Oh man, they played the Olympic Island show this summer with BSS, Metric, Modest Mouse, and a bunch of others and they were the most boring act of the day.

That was stretching-the-legs and buying-merchandise time.

they were awesome when i saw them at ACL and that's a pretty hard place to command presence for smaller bands like this that they contract. one of the highlights of the weekend for me.