Broken Social Scene review – a cathartic crescendo of Mancunian togetherness

The day after the Arena bombing, Manchester city centre is almost deserted and police patrol the streets. Evening sunshine pours through stained glass windows into this beautiful old Wesleyan chapel, but the atmosphere is uneasy until Broken Social Scene stride on and introduce one of the city’s foremost musical sons. Ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr joins them for Anthems for a Seventeen-year Old Girl and Cause = Time, and his departing cry - “Manchester stands together” – sets the tone for an emotional celebration of the power of music.

This influential Canadian collective – whose elemental wall of sound eased the way for Arcade Fire and whose fluid ranks sometimes include singer Feist – will play technically better concerts: one song false-starts and singer Kevin Drew admits he is nervous. However, few will be as transcendentally intense. With as many as 10 people on stage at any time, a two-hour set rampages between songs from new album Hug of Thunder and newly poignant old favourites.

Drew makes a powerful speech about love being “all we have now” and confesses to “a lump in my chest”. He leads a mass primal scream – augmented by the brass section – before musicians leap in the air as cathartic crescendos come again and again. When Drew and singer Emily Haines duet on a lovely, acoustic Backyards, a lyric floats like a petal in the air and is taken up by the whole audience as a gentle mantra: “It’s a hard parade, just be courageous … Just be courageous.”

• At Brixton Academy, tonight.