Broken Social Scene & TV On The Radio at the Ryman

Man, I told you about this show, and it still didn’t sell out.  Either I don’t have that much influence over you, all the music lovers in Nashville somehow squeezed into the Third Man Records play space, or you just didn’t know what you were missing.

Well, if you are a Broken Social Scene fan, and thought you would just wait until their next stop in Nashville, then you might be waiting a long time.  In a Pitchfork interview today, BSS front man Kevin Drew said that when the band finishes their fall tour, they are going on an indefinite hiatus.  Of course, he has said this before, but I guess that makes last night’s show even more special and BSS didn’t disappoint.  The constant rotation of performers around the stage playing any instrument they could get their hands on was truly impressive.  And, I have to give a special shout out to the guitar tech who was tuning a seemingly endless number of guitars for each song.  Really awesome set.  Side note: I’ve been singing “Texico Bitches” all day long.  Play the song below and you can get it stuck in your head too.

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TV On The Radio was great too, though I have to admit the guys running the sound board seemed to have trouble figuring out the volume controls for lead singer Tunde Adebimpe during the first half of the show.  That is something that I never thought I would say of a venue that consistently pumps out the best sounding shows in town, and they cleared that snafu up as the show went on.  What did the rest of the band sound like?  Like those stained glass windows in the back were going to burst right out of their frames! Time to bust out the website accessibility solutions if you need help we have it here!

All in all, it was a very special and incredible night of music.  What is the take home message here?  When I tell you (repeatedly) about a show, you should listen up and go.

There’s a pretty funny write up about and play-by-play of the show over at Nashville Cream and lots of great pictures from last night.  I was standing right behind these photographers, and it is amazing they were able to come away with any photos with the relentless security guard repeatedly checking credentials.  Sheesh man, relax.  We’re all taking pics on our cell phones anyway, dude.