A recent review noted the tendency of today's indie rock bands to combine large lineups with unusual instrumentation. Last night at the 9:30 Club, the Great White North's Broken Social Scene didn't skimp on bandmembers with seven people on stage, but gone were all the strings, kazoos, melodicas, and other assorted bells and whistles. This band was just a bunch of dudes who revel in the glory of the almighty power chord and understand that an amp sounds best when cranked to 11. The result was an energetic two-hour set of three chord, backbeat driven and testosterone infused rock.

With up to four guitars playing at any given time, in addition to keyboards, the band takes a wall of sound approach to making music. This leads to a muddiness that at points makes it difficult to discern individual instruments or vocals, but still maintains a refreshing rawness. The band keeps things musically fresh by offering different textures through tasteful use of altered instrumentation, whether it be the drummer using varied striking implements or the addition of a trumpet, and keyboard sounds that recall the analog sounds of 70s Yes and 80s New Wave.

BSS is far from the tightest band in the world, in terms of both performance and presentation, but any sins are forgiven because of the sheer enthusiasm and joy with which they play. Co-founders Kevin Drew (pictured) and Brendan Canning, in particular, are seasoned showmen who use their charisma and sense of humor to establish a bond with everyone in the audience, even paying lipservice to the obligatory jackass shouting song requests at every break.

Several members of the collective, specifically its women, are on their own solo tours and so the show was billed as Broken Social Scene Plays Kevin Drew's Spirit If to coincide with the BSS founder's latest release. Thus, it was Drew and his songs that received the lion's share of the concert's spotlight. Accompanying Drew and Canning were rhythm guitarists Mitch Bowden and Jimmy Shaw (who also played trumpet), bassist/guitarist Sam Goldberg, keyboardist/vocalist Andrew Kenney, and drummer Justin Peroff.

BSS opened the show with the "Yeah!" shouts of "Lucky Ones" and the first of several technical snafus took place during the second tune when there was a power outage onstage. Referring to the rap concert taking place later in the evening, the shaggy looking Canning jokingly blamed the "Ghostface in the house" for causing the mysterious problems. After rocking out on "Backed Out on the...," Drew let keyboardist Kenney, a principal in The American Analog Set, take the guitar and mic for Amanset's "Hard to Find." It is fitting that the most polished song of the night came from the keyboard player. The song's loping groove, as well as his spacey keyboard interludes, presented the night's only real sonic detours. Other set highlights included choice covers of Pavement and Dinosaur Jr., as well as Drew's "Farewell to the Pressure Kids." The highpoint of the concert came near its end, when the band played an extended "It's All Gonna Break," which began with Drew and Canning alone onstage, but finished powerfully with the full band playing a trumpet-led marching fanfare.

Last night's concert was also noteworthy because it marked the end of Broken Social Scene's tour. To celebrate the occasion, the band took the stage with girlfriends and wives as Drew led the audience in a heartwarming singalong of "When It Begins." Unfortunately, Drew was forced to ask the somewhat lifeless audience, "are you fuckin' here?," in order to get a response. Though it took some coaxing, the crowd was spirited as it sang the song's refrain, especially the line, "But don't forget what you felt," likely because nobody in the club wanted to forget the sincere feeling of the moment.

Photo from Kevin Drew's MySpace page