The Mod Club yesterday was exuding an energy I wouldn't normally feel on a Monday night. I would never have guessed that Metric were popular enough to sell out four nights at The Mod Club, but there you had it. I missed the beginning of the opener's set. That was Jake Fairley, right? If I'm wrong, someone please correct me. Well, I'm assuming that was Jake Fairley because I recognized Ian Worang of Uncut playing as part of the band, and I've read about the Fairley/Worang connection in the past. I was quite taken with his Mark E. Smith-style vocals and post-punk beat-driven tunes. A sizeable chunk of the audience didn't seem to be into the music, which is a shame, or maybe everyone was just too excited to see Metric. Nevertheless, it was a good dance-punk warm up for Metric's set. Too bad there wasn't any merch for the opener. Update: I think the openers were actually Two Koreas.
With the exhuberance of Mick Jagger and Iggy Pop, the sensuality of Debbie Harry, and the art-rockiness of a member of Devo, Emily Haines tore it up yesterday, leading her Metric bandmates through arguably the best show of the 4 night run they had at The Mod Club this past weekend. (Well, I'd like to think it was the best show.) I can positively say that this show'll definitely be in my top 10 for 2005. I can't believe it took me this long to see Metric live, but that's probably all for the better. The extensive touring they've done over the past several years has likely paid off as they showed themselves to be an extremely tight and confident band. Making all the male hearts(and several female ones) go a flutter, Emily was sexily dressed in a black tight-fitting mini dress. From my vantage point, I couldn't see how drummer Joules Scott-Key was dressed but guitarist James Shaw and bassist Joshua Winstead looked sharp in their Hives-inspired white ties and monochrome shirts. I was quite impressed with Emily's stage persona which teeter-tottered between playful frontwoman and drama queen. Even moreso, I really enjoyed watching her tear it up on the keyboards, with a ferocity that reminded me of early 80's power pop bands. Not to stop there, the multi-talented Ms. Haines was spot-on vocally, giving vocal interpretations of songs off "Old World Underground, Where Are They Now?" with glaring accuracy. So if the renditions of such favourites as "Combat Baby", "IOU", "Succexy", and "Wet Blanket" weren't too different from the CD, the energy of the live show more than made up for that. Thankfully the band threw in some interesting instrumental arrangements on some songs to change things around, such as the extended jam session on "Dead Disco" during the encore. It was good sightlines all around as I managed to ease myself close to the front of the stage for Metric's set. In particular, it was good for witnessing the stage-diving incident which ensued. Like it was 1995 all over again, Emily dragged an audience member onto stage and encouraged her to stage dive into the audience. And then with maybe a little bit of encouragement from the audience, Emily followed suit. Priceless. A shame that as the audience guided Emily's body back to stage, I only managed to get a pinky on her. Oh well. At the end of it all, it was all about the music man. New Wave. Pop. Post-Punk. Art-Rock. Metric are no mere imitators, mind you, but are rather unique-sounding in my opinion, managing to find a respectable balance between art and accessibility...as much ready for ZedTV[click for Metric content] as they are for The O.C., which in the end means intelligent pop songs that you can dance to.
[my photos from the show (be forewarned, quality of photos varies)]
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