Broken Social Scene
Bimbo's
Arpril 29, 2004

Review by Shannon Coulter

Though visibly tired after the rigors of South by Southwest, the ten (or so) members of Broken Social Scene continue to maintain the weightless alchemy of their big, tandem skydive, and even seemed to find new reserves of energy as they performed at Bimbo’s on Thursday night. If you’ve already heard or seen them, then you know how they pulled that off despite any exhaustion, for the music of Broken Social Scene billows with a weird airy power, pitches you in unexpected directions, and though it certainly doesn’t intend to—makes a lot of indie rock sound sleepy and safe by comparison.

Alternating between their feather-light, atmospheric sound and a passionate, elastic rock, Broken Social Scene pulled out most if not all the stops for San Francisco with songs like the white-hot Almost Crimes, the driving thrum of Stars and Sons, and the relentlessly transcendent Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl. These are strange songs—unfamiliar, pulsing, abstract, but also somehow immediate, emotional,tender, sexy. They seem to disparage and even mourn the alienation of modernlife, even as they celebrate the privacy it offers to modern lovers and dreamers. How exactly they do this is a complete mystery to be sure, but believe me—it’s fucking exquisite. If you haven’t heard them yet, run don’t walk.



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