Saw Metric at the Highline Ballroom in Manhattan on Friday night (actually, given the starting time, it was technically Saturday morning). All bands fronted by a sole attractive female (Blondie, No Doubt, Yeah Yeah Yeahs) are de facto vehicles for the singer, at least in the eyes of the audience; from that perspective, Metric is three Canadian dudes and Emily Haines, who, though she has an actual solo record of her own (credited to Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton), did nothing to disabuse anyone of the notion. Wearing a gold lamé...uh, dress, or jumper, or something, Haines basically gave the audience what they wanted, tarting out (in an affirmative manner, of course) over her band's slicked-up superflat rock-disco hybridizations, and then, in a show of solidarity with her back-up ba...er, fellow band members, walking off the stage to thunderous applause well before the final song of the encore ended. No need for modesty or unity when the other three dudes quite correctly realize that they'd be sooner sleeping under a bridge than playing the Highline Ballroom without you, I guess. In any event, Metric were good in the sense that they never bored and kept the room's energy level up throughout their set, but why anyone would prefer Metric to the dozens of milquetoast soundalikes who specialize in similarly professional, just-this-side-of-albino danceable indie rock escapes me.
13 August 2008
Metric(s)
Saw Metric at the Highline Ballroom in Manhattan on Friday night (actually, given the starting time, it was technically Saturday morning). All bands fronted by a sole attractive female (Blondie, No Doubt, Yeah Yeah Yeahs) are de facto vehicles for the singer, at least in the eyes of the audience; from that perspective, Metric is three Canadian dudes and Emily Haines, who, though she has an actual solo record of her own (credited to Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton), did nothing to disabuse anyone of the notion. Wearing a gold lamé...uh, dress, or jumper, or something, Haines basically gave the audience what they wanted, tarting out (in an affirmative manner, of course) over her band's slicked-up superflat rock-disco hybridizations, and then, in a show of solidarity with her back-up ba...er, fellow band members, walking off the stage to thunderous applause well before the final song of the encore ended. No need for modesty or unity when the other three dudes quite correctly realize that they'd be sooner sleeping under a bridge than playing the Highline Ballroom without you, I guess. In any event, Metric were good in the sense that they never bored and kept the room's energy level up throughout their set, but why anyone would prefer Metric to the dozens of milquetoast soundalikes who specialize in similarly professional, just-this-side-of-albino danceable indie rock escapes me.
