Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning havin some pizza b4 show in Taipei

Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning havin some pizza b4 show in Taipei

Broken Social Scene was in Taipei last night, and I caught up with them at my fave pizza place about an hour before their show.

Both Drew and Canning are quite affable  and it was sorta strange that no seemed to notice them at this restaurant even though there were about  300 kids lining up across the street to get into the show.

I sat with them at their outdoor table and brought up Fuji Rock and their infamous set at the White Stage in 2006 (read a recap here)  where they did an unexpected encore that sent the sound crew scurrying and setting back the stage’s schedule by like 20 minutes for the entire day.  This performance has gone down in Fuji lore as being the only real “encore” ever performed and according to Drew and Canning, was the “5th best Broken Social Scene set of all time.”

Yup, it didn’t take more than a few seconds for them to blurt this out. And they did it in unison, giving me the impression that they had talked about it previously. The curious thing about this set, and the now famous “encore” is that it wasn’t even their idea at all.

According to Canning, it was Alex Patterson, a member of the group Transit Kings (also known for his work with The Orb), who enthusiastically encouraged the band to get back on stage, even as stage hands had begun dissembling gear and the stage’s backdrop had risen.  The rest, as they say is history.

I asked Broken Social Scene why I didn’t see them hanging around the festival grounds in 2006 as our web team is usually pretty good at picking up artist sitings around the festival.  Canning was a little defensive on this subject, saying he did walk around, even swimming in the creek that runs through the fest.

This year, they’ll arrive the evening before their performance with a full day to walkabout before their show at the Red Marquee. Its obvious that organizers have learned their lesson with this band, slotting them on a smaller stage, but avoiding the embarrassment of encores running over into other performer’s time slots.

As for the Taipei, taking place in a warehouse slightly smaller than the Red Marquee with a crowd of around 1,500 people on hand paying US$60 bucks a ticket… it was pretty much what I had expected.  Drew came out in his trademark leather jacket and they started the set with the first track from their new album “World Sick”    (who wouldn’t think they would start with this?) continued through some of the other hits from this album with Drew giving up his jacket and the guitar for  “Forced to Love”  see it here on Letterman .

And, I don’t want to give anything away here, but the show gets really rocking about halfway in, that’s when both the band and the audience finally cut loose, clapping along to standouts like “It’s all Gonna Break.”

Broken Social Scene is immensely popular in Taiwan, performing twice in as many years with strong audience turnout despite high ticket prices. As a testament to their popularity, their upcoming film, “This Movie Is Broken” is only being released in 2 countries this year, and Taiwan is one of these locations according to Drew.

Still, the popularity of the band didn’t stop people from cutting in front of Drew to pay for his tab at this pizza restaurant.  By his count, at least 4 people had slipped in front of him before he could tell the cashier the name his check was under, “Kevin”.

*photo by me on my crummy iPhone camera.