A Broken Social Night at The Basement Revue, starring Kevin Drew as Jason Collett

What started out as an invite to check out Kevin Drew play at The Dakota Tavern turned into a remarkable night where I'm bumping elbows with some incredible musicians, drinking beer with Kevin's science teacher and parents, sharing the love of music with other fans, and generally carousing in a bar that took on the intimate feel of a kitchen party or a social. I suppose the band's called Broken Social Scene for a reason.

Jason Collett has been hosting his second annual The Basement Revue series on Tuesday nights in December at the Dakota Tavern, a gem of a downstairs bar tucked into the Dundas and Ossington neighborhood of Toronto. The shows feature Jason hosting and performing in the bar, with many friends and performers contributing. The only date he couldn't make was December 9^th, due to a previous engagement on the west coast. So for the night, hosting and performing would be Jason's bandmate in Broken Social Scene, Kevin Drew. I was given the heads-up to check out the show, as the plan sounded like it would be Kevin Drew playing with The Beauties, covering some Pavement tunes.

I made my way to the bar to take up a nice position to the left of the stage. As I sipped on my pint, I struck up a conversation with a woman who turned out to be Kevin Drew's science teacher from high school. She had come down with her co-worker to see her former student on her birthday. Her friend Lesley gave me some of the scoop on this remarkable woman, a teacher for 35 years and now the head of the Association for Canadian Educational Resources, a volunteer organization that monitors ecology and measures the impact of climate change on biodiversity. Check out the site and it's Measure Up program, which goes beyond tree planting as a “dig, plant, and walk away” activity. Retired from teaching and she's out there digging in the dirt planting trees. Brilliant.

"Kevin always was able to draw people to him, even back then."

- Alice Casselman, Kevin Drew's high school teacher.

You know how in high school, if you're luck enough, you get one of those teachers who connects with you, motivates you, has that knack for relating to students? You know, one of The Good Ones? I could immediately tell Alice was one of the good ones from the way Kevin lit up when he saw her there in the line-up. I could tell from the way she asked about what brought me to see the band tonight, and how she asked me if my love of music was something that was part of my work. She still is one of The Good Ones, because when I told her that my job didn't involve music, it left me pondering a bit afterwards.

As the bar filled up, I started recognizing a few faces in the crowd, as it seemed like there were as many musicians as fans in the Dakota that night. And I started to suspect that things would get interesting. I'm in a 200-capacity bar and I'm bumping into members of Stars, Metric, a few other musicians from the Arts and Crafts record label. Brendan Canning and Charlie Spearin and others from members Broken Social Scene were in the house. Shawn from The Beauties came by and tipped me that this would be a hell of a night. No doubt my friend. I didn't have my camera on me when I got the call about the show, so all I had was my cellphone camera to capture the night in all it's "you had to be there" glory. record label. Squeezing by to say hi to Kevin was K-OS and over there was Darcy Yates from Flash Lighting with his mighty rock and roll beard.

Kevin Drew took the stage, informed/warned us it would be a bit of a fast and loose night. First up was Kevin teamed up with a Derek Downham on drums, Charlie Spearin on guitar (I'm blanking on the second guitarist) and proceeded to pick a chord and jam for a bit - “This is a C jam”. When asked for an impromptu name for the band, the shout came back “The Jason Collett Band”. I think I would have gone with Alice's Birthday. Kevin played a couple bars of a Smashing Pumpkins, lamenting the fact that he used to love them and now Billy Corgan just harrasses the crowd at his shows, only playing the new material that's a shallow imitation of the band Kevin and many of us loved.

I was introduced to Kevin Drew's parents at one point, very friendly people. His dad said that at some point his name was changed to “Kevin Drew's Dad”. I didn't get the chance to ask anyone if the were looking forwards to seeing David Drew's Son play that night. I chatted with new friends about that first time we heard Broken Social Scene's 2002 album “You Forgot It In People”, one of those album you hear and nothing is quite the same after that.

From there, things started to pick up steam as an indie rock variety revue developed. Gentleman Reg took the stage and played a lingering cover of Wicked Games by Chris Isaak. Jimmy Shaw from Metric got on the stand-up piano tucked into the side of the stage and played Nobody Home from Pink Floyd's "The Wall". Musicians would be called to the stage, only for Kevin to discover they'd snuck out to The Communist Daughter, another well-loved little bar just across the street. It happened so often, I pronounced the Commie as the unofficial Green Room for the night.

Kevin Drew and Amy Millan

Amy Millan from Stars was found and did a few numbers, and oh Lord what a voice. Derek Downham kept getting called back to the stage to drum with one musician or another he used to play with. Poet Mark Goldstein of Bookthug publishers read a poem or two. Jimmy Shaw teamed up with Torq Campbell from Stars for a number. Here before us were musicians playing for the love of music, no albums being pushed, no merchandise table in sight.

A Broken Social Scene erupts

Inevitably, it was time for a game of “how many indie musicians can you fit on a stage” as Broken Social Scene formed on stage for a few songs with Torq on trumpet, Justin Peroff on drums, Lisa Lobsinger singing. The beauty of a collective like Broken Social Scene is it can form with whomever is at hand. The crowd, mesmerized by the intimacy of the first half of the night, were dancing and singing along as Broken Social Scene played Shoreline and Love is New.

The Beauties

Things got euphoric, things got hazy at that point. I remember Kevin teamed up with The Beauties for a cover of Pavement's Gold Soundz that had me grinning and whooping. The Beauties proceeded to knock out the crowd with a few songs of their own like Die Die Die before killing with a version of the Velvet Underground's I'm Waiting For The Man that drove the energy in the bar up until you thought it would explode.

As the night wound down, I remember Bill Priddle jamming with Kevin. I remember Bill from Treble Charger (he wrote Red among other songs and left in 2003), Broken Social Scene and now in The Bill Priddle Concern. The night closed out with Kevin noodling on drums, and then he came by, shaking hands and, thanking us for sticking around for the whole show. I thanked him, because I can't conceive how you could duplicate that sort of night.

Torq Campbell and Jimmy Shaw

I left that bar after last call, walked into the night thinking about what I learned that night and thinking about some potential that's waiting for me. Like I said earlier, nothing was really the same after I heard Broken Social Scene's album "You Forgot It In People" back in 2002. I dug out my worn and loved CD today and noticed the album was dedicated "for our friends, families and loves." That Tuesday night at The Dakota Tavern, I got to see exactly where that dedication came from, whether it was meeting teachers and parents that influenced these musicians, seeing old bandmates get together again, or hearing these performers cover songs that they love enough to honor in tribute. Know what you love, remember where you came from, and acknowledge the people you draw strength from. All that and some good music will get you through the night.

Jason Collett returns to host The Basement Revue this Tuesday. The shows are sold out but if you can wrangle a ticket, I strongly encourage you to go: you never know who's going to drop in. Stars have just finished a 3 night stand in Toronto and are looking to go back to the studio. Kevin Drew and the rest of Broken Social Scene is making the trip to New York City to play The Late Show with David Letterman on Wednesday night (reminding me of seeing them on Conan O'Brien a few years back, where Conan came on stage after to cry out “I think we need more guitars!”). Gentleman Reg just put out a single for the first time on vinyl, and look for his new album in the new year, along with Metric's next disc. The Beauties play Sunday nights at The Dakota Tavern and have a 4-track EP “Die Die Die” out now.

All pictures copyright the2scoops - Flickr here