Excuses: Heat, holidays, Hutton, etc...

It didn't say 'Gig+sauna' on the ticket but that's what those packed into the Camden Barfly Tuesday night got - a hot show and no mistaking! Given the conditions, 'OK' just wouldn't have been good enough to keep folks in the room so the fact so few exited before the band themselves did bears testimony to Broken Social Scene's pleasure-giving powers.
A seven-piece this night for what was the elastic Toronto outfit's UK debut, the show resembled their terrific album You forgot it in people in as far as it was bookended by numbers far less compelling than all that came between. The first of many highs came in the second number as the four guitars, bass and drums drove Cause=time to an air-punching crescendo. New UK taster single Stars and sons followed, all levitating bass and handclaps a-gogo. A song called Do the 95 is apparently the 'B' side; heard by this blog for the first time tonight, this equally ace slice of anglo-indie makes the single a fairly compulsory purchase.
Interchanging roles frequently, four different vocal leads were featured during the show. Andrew Whiteman and Leslie Feist combined in the blissfully cool Looks just like the sun and the latter also topped off the dubby delight of Shampoo suicide. Superfine stuff..

..the promise of more of which lead rather more folks than could be accomodated to Rough Trade's tiny basement shop in Covent Garden the following lunchtime. Squeezed into a corner just inches apart from one another (and us) the band flung out an improbably crisp Almost crimes and more. With a good:not-so-good tunes ratio of about 8:1 and unfailingly good-humoured whatever the circumstances, Broken Social Scene expect to be back here in October. reallyrather respectfully suggests you be there to greet them...

And you really ought to also be at the 12 Bar this Tuesday (19th) for a cracking bill featuring Will Johnson & Scott Danbom of South San Gabriel / Centro-matic and John Roderick & Sean Nelson of Seattle's The Long Winters making their UK debut...

'Call it "progressive power pop" or "experimental west-coast roots" or the next small thing,' says the Riverfront Times - heck, just call it Gingersol...

'A mix of Mazzy Star, Flying Burritos, Love, Carpenters, Sparklehorse, and Little Feat, they slide neatly alongside the likes of Beachwood Sparks and My Morning Jacket.' Or so says South London's best - OK, only - indie/roots venue, the Windmill on Brixton Hill ahead of a show Thursday by Loose Shoes, 'a new south London/LA 8-piece formed by longtime Mojave 3 member Ian McCutcheon'. At 3 quid, has to be worth a go...