[ATTENDED: October 23, 2022] Metric
Metric’s Fantasties was one of my favorite albums of 2009. I liked it so much I went back and got their first two albums as well and really enjoyed their brand of gritty synth pop all based around Emily Haines’ astute and observantly dark lyrics. Then I kind of lost track of them. They put out a record in 2012 Synthetica which I don’t understand why I didn’t listen to. They’ve continued to release albums every three years or so, and I’d been hearing how good their live shows were so I decided to check out The Doomscroller tour.
The stage setup was quite simple–a wall of lights behind them. The four members stood close to the center. Amazingly, the four members have been the same since more or less the beginning (they had a different bassist but he left before their first album). Joules Scott-Key on drums in the back. Joshua Winstead on bass more or less in front of us. James Shaw on guitar on the far side and singer Emily Haines in the middle. They were all standing at keyboards as the moody intro to “Doomscroller” started. Emily moved to one of the keyboards to add her parts and when the song shifted, she walked over to another keyboard–do they have different purposes?
When the sound shifted, the guys moved away from the synths and started rocking out. The lights changed. Emily moved into the middle and the whole room rocked out. Until things settled down again. The song is ten minutes with several parts and it showed exactly what the band was going to do and what the show was going to be like.
It was exciting and cathartic all together.
This show was being livestreamed and there was talk on the Instagram account asking for requests. I don’t know if any were honored, but they played songs from throughout their career.
But I was stoked right away when they launched into the Fantasies track “Gold Guns Girls” and the whole band sounded perfect. The guitars and synths were right on, the backing vocals were perfect, and Emily got the exact right tone in her voice.
The played a few songs I didn’t know, but they played a bunch from the new Formentera which I had listened to a few times so I was familiar with the songs. I was really impressed with how full of life the songs sounded. Every song sounded bigger and more intense. Maybe the live instruments helped. Shaw played some pretty wicked guitar solos and I was struck throughout the night by how great Winstead’s bass sounded. An excellent tone and lots of little fills and runs throughout the night. It was great.
But the show absolutely rocketed into space with the amazing “Help I’m Alive.” This song has two distinct parts. I have to say I never quite thought about how different these parts were until the live version. The first part of the song is dark and has a pulsing beat (that compliments the lyric “my heart is beating like a hammer”). The lights were a pulsing red. After a couple of verses, though the song shifts gears to a bright, poppy chorus and the lights shifted with it–a huge difference. The band bounced around to the chorus (my regrets are few!) and then as the song shifted back to the verse, the band and lights shifted instantly. It was great.
After a couple more new songs, they played two acoustic songs. These were from their debut album and I have to say I didn’t recognize them, but they sounded great. Emily’s voice was beautiful and the crowd was really into it.
She didn’t talk a lot between songs–a few shoutouts, but not much else. She also put on a layer after the acoustic songs which I was really surprised by because she must have been very hot the way she was bouncing around.
I don’t really know how their post-Fantasies albums did. They played one song from Pagans in Vegas (a wonderful title) and only two from Synthetica (although both had huge sing along parts that the crowd was really into).
And then they played two more songs from Fantasies. “Sick Muse” was followed by a song that gets stuck in my head for days, “Gimme Sympathy.” It sounded perfect live and I was thrilled to hear it.
That ended the set. They came back after a couple of minutes. Emily had on a different jacket and they played four songs–only one of which I knew well. After a new song they played the only song from Live It Out–a ripping sing along “Monster Hospital.” This was followed by a song from the Scott Pilgrim soundtrack–“Black Sheep.”
They ended with “Breathing Underwater” which seemed like an odd song to end with (I didn’t know it). But it was full of everything that the rest of the show was–moodiness, buildup, catharsis and a huge sing along.
It was a terrific show–hugely entertaining and very satisfying.
Setlist
- Doomscroller ƒ
- Gold Guns Girls ≅
- Dark Saturday ∀
- False Dichotomy ƒ
- Help I’m Alive ≅
- Formentera ƒ
- Enemies of the Ocean ƒ
- Calculation Theme (acoustic) ¿
- Combat Baby (acoustic) ¿
- Cascades ¶
- All Comes Crashing ƒ
- Now or Never Now ∀
-
Synthetica §
-
Sick Muse ≅
-
Gimme Sympathy ≅
Encore:
-
What Feels Like Eternity ƒ
-
Monster Hospital £
-
Black Sheep Ó
-
Breathing Underwater §
The Face, Part I [taped outro] ¶
ƒ Formentera (2022)
∀ Art of Doubt (2018)
¶ Pagans in Vegas (2015)
§ Synthetica (2012)
Ó Scott Pilgrim vs. the World soundtrack (2010)
≅ Fantasies (2009)
£ Live It Out (2005)
¿ Old World Underground, Where Are you Now? (2003)
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