It seems like the last few years have seen a lot of anniversary celebrations for albums, which -- aside from making me feel old -- has been a wild trip back through time. Case in point, Broken Social Scene struck out on tour to celebrate their breakthrough 2002 release, You Forgot It In People. Their first stop? The Commodore Ballroom here in Vancouver for a pair of shows.

Opening the night was The Rural Alberta Advantage — and fun story, when I was on vacation earlier this year, I happened to be in Los Angeles the same night as their show there, so this was my second time seeing the trio this year, in two different countries.

They started with "CANDU" off the latest EP The Rise, with Nils Edenloff’s distinct vocals ringing off songs like “Bad Luck Again” and the tempestuous “Tornado ‘87”.

Mid-way through the set, drummer Paul Banwatt and keyboardist Amy Cole took a break for Nils to perform a song on his own, one written for his wife (before they were married five days previous to this show!) "Ten Feet Tall".

Once the band returned, they slowly built back the intensity with "White Lights" before a few more, and ending off the set with the explosive "Terrified".

Not long after, a full compliment of Broken Social Scene members took the stage; Kevin Drew, Brendan Canning, Charles Spearin, Andrew Whiteman, Sam Goldberg, and Ariel Engle, along with Evan Cranley (of Stars), and special guest drummer Loel Campbell (of Wintersleep) a last-minute fill-in on this tour for Justin Peroff. Throughout the night members changed instruments, running around stage, with Drew and Canning, and occasionally Whiteman taking lead on the male vocals, and Engle doing all the female vocals.

As a celebration of You Forgot It In People, they started off the set with "KC Accidental" and then went through the first half of the album, including the chilled out "Looks Just Like The Sun", tropical instrumental “Pacific Theme”, and a raucous "Cause = Time". At one point, Drew said he was inspired to not just play the album front to back after seeing Alanis Morissette live, and immediately went into a few songs from their self-titled: "7/4 Shoreline" and "Fire Eye'd Boy", a pair of crowd-pleasing singalongs.

After dedicating "Hug of Thunder" to Gord Downie, coming up to the fifth anniversary of his passing, a gorgeous version of “Lover’s Spit”, and soaring “World Sick”, they thanked everyone again and launched into “Ibi Dreams of Pavement (A Better Day)”, a cathartic song, especially with Drew encouraging the crowd to just scream everything from the last couple years out.

That was supposed to be the encore break, but as everyone was leaving the stage, Drew didn’t move and just waved everyone back for one last song, one that was conspicuously absent from a set celebrating You Forgot It In People. With Ariel Engle taking main vocals once more, and dedicating it to every woman who was ever in the band, they capped off the night with an incredibly emotional singalong to perennial favourite, “Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl” to send everyone home happy.

A few times during the show, while the band was paused between songs, the crowd just erupted; it was the first show on Broken Social Scene’s tour, so the members on stage were all visibly emotional to be back at it, and the crowd was more than happy to welcome them. How could we not with a pair of bands like this?

BSS setlist
KC Accidental
Stars & Sons
Almost Crimes
Looks Just Like the Sun
Pacific Theme
Cause = Time
7/4 Shoreline
Fire Eye'd Boy
Shampoo Suicide
I'm Still Your F
Hug of Thunder
Lovers Spit
World Sick
Ibi Dreams of Pavement (A Better Day)
[encore]
Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl

RAA setlist
CANDU
Bad Luck Again
Tornado 87
3 Sisters
10ft Tall
White Lights
Frank AB
Brother
Terrified