Review by: Alicia
Photos by: David Thai
I’m not really sure where to start because Metric has left me pretty blown away. They played their last show of their Canadian tour at the exquisite Orpheum theatre in Vancouver last night, to a crowd that was eager to soak up some pretty awesome Canadian talent.
Opening for Metric was Zeus. They were alright. To be honest, it seemed like they were just wanting to get through their set. Mind you, I don’t blame them. It must be tough being an opener when you see an ocean of empty seats infront of you and you know those seats are empty because everyone’s outside having a drink, waiting for the headliners to hit the stage. Nonetheless, they did have some decent songs, their best being ”That’s All” (too bad it’s a cover song – original by Genesis). As soon as Zeus strummed their last note and said thanks and goodbye, a mob of youngins flew to the stage to get good spots for Metric only to have security kibosh their front row dreams seconds later by sending them all back to their seats. Ha!
Metric took to the stage and instantaneously blew everyone away. Not only was Emily Haines wearing a short, backless, gold sequined number, her voice was…angelic. Yeah, I just called it that. I had never heard Metric live and I was pleasantly surprised. They started with “Twilight Galaxy” and played against a background of flying stars. Like I said, angelic.
They had a simple stage but really cool backgrounds. The screen was split into four sections, one camera on each bandmate, and used what looked like a thermal filter/camera. They also had light bulbs dangling from the light rafters to match their Fantasies album cover.
At one point in the set Haines yelled, “You gotta fight, for your right, to paaaaaarty”…obviously the crowd ate that up. She also said something along the lines of how it’s time for the A.D.D myspace generation to produce another band like Led Zeppelin and that “it’s not about romanticizing the past but acknowledging what sucks from the present.” The band then broke into ” Gimme Sympathy” which got the already wired crowd jumping and moshing (well as much as you can mosh in the Orpheum).
Best tracks of the night were “Help I’m Alive”, “Gold Gun Girls”, “Stadium Love”, and her acoustic version of “Combat Baby” which she devoted to another music artist and friend of the band, Torquil Campbell, and which could have easily brought anyone to tears: it was beautiful.
The only problem of the night was Haines’ hair. Honestly, I get it’s wispy and there’s only so much you can do with it, but please, tie it up and show us your gorgeous face. And although it was cool that she was headbanging, her hair wasn’t so cool after the headbanging. I also didn’t realize that Haines was so spastic. Her spastic movements don’t match her smooth, seductive voice.
Despite her stage antics, Haines and the rest of Metric were incredible. Not only would I argue that Fantasies is one of 2009’s best albums, I think Metric is one of the best bands I’ve seen live.
Huge thanks goes to Metric and their PR dude Myles. We loves y’all.
