Toronto Island Concert

Beach House (4:00 p.m.)

When I interviewed Beach House in March, guitarist Alex Scally mentioned in passing that people should treat music more seriously – as in, stop simultaneously YouTubing, playing Halo while listening to Teen Dream. Also, put down your fucking Blackberry and digital camera and just watch the show; you might just get something out of it. They didn’t disappoint. Their dream-pop filled the sweltering day with surprising vigor: “10-Mile Stereo” and “Norway” incited dancing while “Take Care” and “Gila” prompted swaying; the live three-piece have tightened their sound meticulously and deliver an unexpectedly powerful live performance. More and more, it’s convincing that Teen Dream is one of the best albums of the year. Indeed, with Beach House, you get out of it what you put in.

Band of Horses (5:15 p.m.)

Did they read the review or something? Beginning the set with four old songs, I wondered when Band of Horses would acknowledge their severely mediocre new album. Peppered with bona fide southern jams, Infinite Arms’ predecessors are far better albums compared to the innocuous new album. Whether keenly aware of this fact or not, dedicating the set to older material significantly improved the crowd reception. Besides, even the most anti-indie-rock curmudgeon would find it hard not to dance along to “Weed Party”. 

Broken Social Scene (6:45 p.m.)

“Forgiveness is our favorite emotion,” said Kevin Drew midway through their set. I can understand why some might see this as an empty platitude but somehow Drew’s moralizing registers as an ultimate truth when watching their live show. And he’s probably right. Despite some cynicism towards BSS (admittedly this not helping), it’s hard to fault a band whose live act is a rotating clown-car of indie stars/starlets (Feist, Emily Heines, Sebastian Grainger all made appearances). Call it home-court advantage, but the massively receptive crowd witnessed one of the best BSS-performances in memory. Whether voraciously chanting along to “Cause=Time” (“we don’t need to fuck the cause!”) or insistently clapping to “Stars & Suns”, You Forgot It In People might as well have come out yesterday. Short of “Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl”, no classics were left out of the near-two hour set.

Yes, the inanimate and impartial Impose Automation dawned Forgiveness Rock Record an average release. But Impose Automaton hasn’t been in love and can’t relate to the BSS-credo of “Sentimental X’s”: “all for one, and one for all”.

The twenty-person BSS line-up was both musically unnecessary and visually essentially. They probably don’t need near two-dozen people to play “Lover’s Spit”, but the massive stage presence extends an invitation into the crowd: you can be any of those voices.

Pavement (9:00 p.m.)

It was the fifteen year olds who braved the sweltering heat to be within five feet of Stephen Malkmus. Irony aside that Slanted & Enchanted has a few years on most of the fans, the kids could be doing a hell of a lot worse. Pavement apparently are transcending generations; who knew? Compiled mainly of greatest hits, Pavement took to the 10,000-person strong crowd in strides. Much more energetic and content that Chuck Klosterman’s GQ Pavement-expose might have suggested, the now past-forty group was vibrant, bouncing around the stage and playing to the crowd. Who knows what prompted the reunion, but despite it, it’s hard not to celebrate the bout of nostalgia during the “it’s everybody’s god” sing-a-long of “Shady Lane” – even if that song is older than you are.