I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: July 28, 2026] Metric

When this tour (dubbed All the Feelings) was announced, I knew I was going immediately.  Stars, Broken Social Scene and Metric?  Three great Canadian bands who have all played with each other?  It sounded wonderful.

I saw Metric back in 2022 and thought their show was fantastic.  Their album Fantasties was one of my favorite albums of 2009.  I hadn’t listened to their subsequent albums as much, but I really enjoyed that show.  And I was excited for this one.  Their new album is much more synth poppy, which I didn’t love.  But I figured it sounded like a great opportunity for a live show.

I was somewhat taken aback when the stage setup was revealed for Metric.  In hindsight it didn’t look very different from the last time–dark and spare with lots of room for walking around.  But it was such a stark difference from the warm, crowded stage for Stars and Broken Social Scene.

The drums were straight back on a riser.  On either side of the riser were electronic gadgets.  Full sized gear that was lit up with colorful lights.  In the center of the stage was a small table with a keyboard and a light.  It was perfectly symmetrical.

The band came out and, holy cow, they had banks of lights al around the stage, including right at the front and those lights shone right at the people in the front row.  I felt like the family in front of me was really unhappy about that.  At any rate, they left about half way through the set for whatever reason.

I was front and center for this show so, I was right in front of Emily Haines.  Joules Scott-Key on drums in the back–but so dark that I could barely see him for most of the show.  Joshua Winstead was on to my right.  He often went back to that bank of electronica to do whatever he had to do.  I always enjoyed watching him play bass because he seemed to play very hard–even if sometimes the electronics drowned him out.  On the left was James Shaw playing guitar and also doing whatever to the wall of dials and gears he had back there.

They opened with their new single Victim of Luck, a song I love.  It sounded great.  I enjoyed that Emily would move her table of gear around the stage–sometimes parking it up front, other times pushing it out of the way to give her more room to more around.  Up next was Formentera, with a thumping bass and ringing guitars.

Youth Without Youth is another new song with some jagged guitars and a propulsive beat.  I wondered how some of the sounds were being generated.  Sometimes Emily played the keyboard, but other times, I’m guessing that James had manipulated the sounds so that his guitar sounded more like a synth.  I also enjoyed the Go Go Go Go part.

Then they played two songs from their second album. The bouncy Monster Hospital and the more moody Poster of a Girl. 

Then it was back to the new album and the softer, sleeker Crush Forever.  This song is pretty simple with the only thing that sticks out for me is the bassline that gets tossed in every once in a while.  The guys basically faced away from us the whole tie while they did whatever they did.  There’s something about the song that feels lacking for me.  The same came with Antigravity.  It’s all bass and very little else.  And both songs she’s singing in a falsetto that feels almost robotic.  The chorus is kind of bouncy and catchy but I never really got into it.

They followed this with a song from The Art of Doubt, an album I didn’t know at all (they did play it last time as well).  I guess I didn’t realize how synthy the band really was.  Even after seeing them last time, I assumed they were more guitar based with synths thrown in and not some much programmed synth music with occasional guitar.  And I don’t dislike programmed synth music, but it’s not what I as expecting, especially given the songs from Fantasies that I love.

I started to feel like the set was kind of boring.  I realized that there were a lot of songs that I didn’t know and I assumed they were playing songs from the new album.  But I see now that they played songs from their last few records and I guess I hadn’t listened to them.  And I realized what I didn’t lie about many of these newer songs. There wasn’t a lot of music in them.  There was a lot of one synth note and then key change to one other synth note.  The music was as spare as the set.  And while there’s nothing wrong with that per se, the Metric that I like is really busy.

They followed this with Breathing Underwater. Last time they ended the night with this song and I thought it was kind of slow to end a show with.  It felt kind of slow tonight although the chorus is fairly catchy.

Leave You on a High felt like a really ironic song because I was feeling a little down about the show by now.  I had even checked the setlist a few times to make sure they were going to play the songs I wanted to hear.  It was another song that was really spare and for wanting to leave someone on a high it was pretty mellow–but now I was just feeling nitpicky.   I like All Comes Crashing, although it did still feel weird spare.  It was also interesting that James played guitar lines but they sounded like a synth (that mixing board, I’m sure).

I had enjoyed Tremolo on record before the show but at this point I couldn’t wait for the last few songs.  I mean, tis one seemed to strip away all of the music except for a simple drum beat and single notes.  I’m certain that last time the band felt huge and this show they felt kind of empty.

When they started Synthetica, things picked up.  They brought out some folks from Broken Social Scene and the song rocked a bit harder.  It was weird during this song she kept saying that everyone onstage was 100% human, which was true, but it feels like their music is becoming less human with each release since Fantasies.

And then….finally, the synths were (more or less) off and the guitars came back and they ripped into Gold Guns Girls.  The crows around me was super excited (and sang too loudly).  I know everyone around me was enjoying the previous songs too, but it just felt that the excitement built for this song.

They played one more song from the new album, Loyal, which I didn’t know, but they brought out most of Broken Social Scene and Stars to sing along and that was fun.  Again, it brought a lot more personality to the show.  This song continues with spareness on the new album.  Single keyboard notes that spell out the melody joined by quiet guitars.  I feel like their drummer must be bored out of his mind on this new album.  Having said that, the bridge was really catchy and the repeated cymbal crashes in the chorus was fun–especially with everyone in stage miming the action.

And then, FINALLY.  Emily asked something about the Beatles and the Stones and we knew what was coming.  Still one of my favorite songs, and it was amazing to hear it live and to feel the whole band playing Gimme Sympathy.

They ended the set with Combat Baby, a song from their debut, which I don’t know all that well–last time when I saw them, they played it acoustically, which was unexpected.  So the end of the set made me realize how much I don’t actually know Metric at all.

They left for an encore break and I knew that they would come back and play Help I’m Alive, a song that has blown up on TikTok but which I’ve loved since Fantasties came out.  As I said last time, it was fantastic live.  The first part of the song is dark and has a pulsing beat (that compliments the lyric “my heart is beating like a hammer”).  After a couple of verses,  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 lights shifted instantly with Emily pounding her chest in time to the beat.

It was hard for me to believe that there was another song  to play after this.  They followed it with Black Sheep a song I should recognize from Scott Pilgrim, although in the movie one of the characters sings the song.  I wonder if this song has taken on a life of its own that I’m unaware of.  It’s super fun regardless.

Near the end of the set Emil said she wanted to see everyone in the front row and so she walked along the stage acknowledging everyone.  And then she stopped in front of a guy next to me.  I had actually encountered this person at a show at Johnny Brenda’s.  He is a Character.  He is very Flamboyant.  He was dressed Very Distinctly at this how.  In other words he was hard to miss.  Emily squatted down and appeared to sing directly to him. I don’t know what he was doing, but when she stood up, she blew him a kiss.  It definitely spoke to standing out in a crowd if you want to be noticed.

When the show ended a few minutes later, the drummer brought drums sticks right to him.  But when he tossed them, they fell into the security area.  So the guy jumped the fence to get them.  But as soon as he picked them up, security was on him in a flash and he was whisked away somewhere.  He had a ton of stuff, including his VIP swag right at the barrier.  Since he is very outgoing and friendly, everyone was concerned about his stuff and wanted to make sure he got it.  I don’t know how it ended and I do feel bad for him, but you don’t jump over the barrier dude!

So, while the end got me excited about the show, I was really kind of meh through the middle.  And as I said, I think what this proves to me is that Fantasties is an anomaly in their catalog and that they are far more of a synth pop band than I realized.  I don’t dislike synth pop (Chvrches anyone?) but Fantasies is so good for me that the rest just doesn’t stack up.  Last time, the yonly played four songs from Fantasies (this time only three) but I think the diversity in the set made it more fun overall.

After they whisked away the guy who jumped the barrier, some guys handed out signed setlists to a bunch of people up front.  I suspect they were supposed to go the VIP people (who most of the people in the front were–including that guy).  Two girls jumped to the railing when that family left and boy were they excited to get a setlist.  And they let me take a picture so that was cool.

But I guess I won’t be going to see Metric again anytime soon.  Incidentally, back in 2025, they were supposed to tour Fantasies with Bloc Party.  They pulled out of the tour and I never wound up getting a ticket. And now I wish I had gone to see Bloc Party.  Oh well.

 

	2026 The Met	Christmas  2022
	Victim of Luck ⇓	Doomscroller ƒ
	Oh Please ƒ	Gold Guns Girls ≅
	Youth Without Youth §	Dark Saturday ∀
	Monster Hospital £	False Dichotomy ƒ
	Poster of a Girl £	Help I’m Alive ≅
	Crush Forever ⇓	Formentera ƒ
	Antigravity ⇓	Enemies of the Ocean ƒ
	Now or Never Now ∀	Calculation Theme (acoustic) ¿
	Breathing Underwater §	Combat Baby (acoustic) ¿
	Leave You on a High ⇓	Cascades ¶
	All Comes Crashing ƒ	All Comes Crashing ƒ
	Tremolo ⇓	Now or Never Now ∀
	Synthetica § (with Broken Social Scene)	Synthetica §
	Gold Guns Girls ≅ (with Broken Social Scene)	Sick Muse ≅
	Loyal ⇓ (with Broken Social Scene) (and Stars)	Gimme Sympathy ≅
	Gimme Sympathy ≅	encore
	Combat Baby ¿	What Feels Like Eternity ƒ
	encore	Monster Hospital £
	Help I’m Alive ≅	Black Sheep Ó
	Black Sheep Ó	Breathing Underwater §
		The Face, Part I  [taped outro] ¶

⇓ Romanticize the Dive (2026)
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)