Review Mon Jun 15 2009

Review: Metric @ Metro 6/14/09

My mp3 phone only has two gigs, so it doesn't hold very many albums at one time. I rotate new music in and out, but the one album that hasn't gotten the boot is Metric's Fantasies. It could quite possibly be one of the best albums of 2009. Frontwoman Emily Haines said during their show at Metro last night that the idea with the album was to give us some summer good tunes, and that they have done.

They took the stage without talking, just jumping right into the music with a down-to-business tone. Energy grew throughout the show, starting off dreamlike with a blue hue (truly taking on the name Fantasies), into strobe lights, rock and dancing. Their first single from Fantasies, "Help I'm Alive," was the second song played, with Haines slowly raising the tambourine in hand with the "beating like a hammer" crescendo. As they kicked into more fast paced, grittier tunes, she also interacted with the crowd more. Haines really was the center of the show, as it was hard to take your eyes off her. Cute and thin blonde (basically hot) with great fashion sense--a dangly necklace, boots and slashed black jeans--she danced her heart out with a little knee popping trot, the kind of pointed-toe girly dance you expect to catch a 5 year old doing. While the rest of the band was just as "on," it was clear that she owned that stage and they supported her well.

The show ended with a bang, but the encore lacked the same intensity. At one point Haines was rolling around on the ground saying something about the environment, but as you know at a rock concert it's sometimes hard to understand what they are saying when they aren't singing. Still, a band like Metric makes a Sunday night at Metro feel like anything but the end of the weekend.

[See all the photos by Kirstie Shanley from the show at the Gapers Block: Transmission Flickr page.]

— Michelle Meywes / Comments (0)