"The beat will steal you."

It was a congregation of sorts. I could safely say that a vast majority of Singapore's indie music-loving people, from Home Club scenesters to leading musicians like Ginette Chittick, were there. If they're weren't at The Great Spy Experiment's acoustic show, they must've been at An Evening with Broken Social Scene. Well, I was there for the latter.

The band didn't make the crowd wait, taking to the stage 10 minutes after schedule. Vocalist and co-founder Kevin Drew showed a first glimpse of his sense of humour by naming our escaped foe Mas Selamat Kastari among the members of BSS who were missing. Jokes aside, BSS brought the anticipating crowd to its feet with opening number 7/4 (Shoreline). It helped that the ushers did not stop the crowd from venturing closer to the stage.

The collective got around the problem of missing staff by inviting guest musicians to jam with them, further illustrating the concept of a broken line-up. But broken their music certainly wasn't, enthralling the audience with through fan favourites like Fire Eye'd Boy, Cause = Time and Lover's Spit, even surprising with the seldom performed I'm Your Fag. They even invited guest musicians from other Mosaic acts to chip in completely unrehearsed solos. Ah, beautiful spontaneity at its best!

The charismatic Drew sure had the audience under his spell. Forgetting his lyrics once, he pleaded for forgiveness after overcoming his gaffe. "I'm so over it, are you?" To which the crowd gave a resounding yes. He worked the crowd further by egging them to scream "I'm alive!" and scampering into the audience to applaud raucously with them for thirty seconds before breaking into Ibi Dreams of Pavement (A Better Day).

Kevin Drew

Meanwhile, guitarist Andrew Whiteman had a sideshow of his own going on. He was clearly in a trance through the night. Demonstrating some sort of guitar taichi he cradled his guitar and lifted his pick to the air, as if harnessing the energy of the axe gods, all while seducing the crowd with his intense gaze.

The band sure enjoyed themselves as much as the crowd did. They had expected to play in a club but ended up in a 1600-seat concert hall. Drew even raved what liberal place Singapore is because customs were compromising in allowing him to bring in his own brand of Canadian ciggies, and complimenting our "No _____" signs as ART.

Before we knew it, two hours were up. The band closed the show with the epic It's All Gonna Break. And for only the second time in their career, BSS did a stage bow, capping an unforgettable night for both band and fans.