art/official: Broken Social Scene @ Tipitina’s

Last week, on the day after Valentine’s Day, Canadian indie-staples Broken Social Scene descended upon New Orleans. If you were lucky enough to have your Valentine’s Day filled with love, romance, and happiness, this concert kept that winning streak going, however if your day happened to consist of things more along the lines of bitterness, resentment, and regret, the concert provided the perfect prescription for a broken heart. Regardless, Broken Social Scene’s sold-out show at Tipitina’s was fertile ground in which the band planted and cultivated beautiful sonic landscapes.

Twelve years, four years, seven film scores, a plethora of side projects, and a ton of lineup changes later, Broken Social Scene is still having fun. The band was all smiles as they triumphed through the depths of their discography. They opened with the explosive “KC Accidental,” which segued into the catchy stand-out track “Texico Bitches” (an appropriate choice for a New Orleans crowd) from the band’s “Best of 2010” list-topping album Forgiveness Rock Record. Immediately following came the pulsing tempo, supreme guitar work, and male/female back-and-forth vocals of “7/4 (Shoreline).” The band then breathed new life into the aggressive FRR single “Forced To Love,” followed directly by the album’s other single, “All To All,” an elegant dream pop submarine ride fronted by the band’s current female lead, Lisa Lobsinger. She carried the torch later in the show, as well, when the band played their haunting classic “Anthems For A Seventeen-Year-Old Girl.” The set’s climax came at the end of the initial set with the performance of the tour de force “Meet Me In The Basement.” Every member of the group (plus the guitar tech) triumphantly lined the stage, guitars lifted like goblets, playing their hearts out. For an encore, various members of trickled out, improvised a few songs, then finished strong with “Looks Just Like The Sun,” “Water In Hell,” and “Ibi Dreams Of Pavement (A Better Day).”

Lead singer/founding member Kevin Drew played a great frontman, crawling into the crowd, encouraging sing-alongs, and cracking jokes between songs. It was great seeing a band whose subject matter oftentimes focuses on politics and heartbreak let loose a little bit and just play a great show to a dedicated audience. It’s clear that Broken Social Scene do what they love and love what they do, which points to a promising future for this incredible band.