“Blame Canada!” was once a popular line to quote from South Park episodes of about ten years ago. I don’t recall exactly what Canada did in the show to deserve it, but one thing is clear. Despite some of the program’s characters’ conviction that it “Isn’t even a country”, this northern-most third of the North American continent may be blamed (or praised) for continually exporting two things. One is…maple syrup! Where would our sweet breakfast foods be without it? The other is a bit more under the radar. Any guesses?
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Metric
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 Entertainment
 Art
Metro
Chicago, IL
June 14, 2009
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If you said, “Indie rock bands”, you’re right! For those folks who were on target, I don’t have to extol the virtues of Broken Social Scene, The New Pornographers, Frog Eyes, Destroyer, Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown, Swan Lake, or left-field electronica like Venetian Snares and Final Fantasy. Come to think of it, may be a good idea to paste Spencer Krug’s face next to that maple leaf on their flag. Tip: If you have no idea who I’m talking about, I highly suggest giving each of these great bands a listen.
At least three of the above-mentioned bands classify as supergroups – a band made up of people from other popular bands. For example, Broken Social Scene’s Leslie Feist has a few solid albums out, including 2007’s The Reminder, which has that iPod nano “1234” song.
BSS burgeoned to an 11-piece collective by their sophomore effort, and the cast of musicians included James Shaw and Emily Haines of the very band that is the focus of this article, Metric. How convenient.
Unlike BSS, Metric has only four members. Like BSS, the quartet manages to produce songs that are almost as sprawling and grandiose. If it’s hard to tell from listening to recordings, their Metro performance made it clear.
In addition to vocals, Haines jammed on keyboards and bounced across the stage while banging a tambourine. Shaw riffed on guitars, and bass and drums rounded off the set up. On albums, the band focuses on crunchy, poppy rock with electro bits mixed in. Their latest is April’s Fantasies; here a wall-of-sound guitar takes over much of the album.
The Metro show mostly dwelled in that territory. Metric kicked off with a back-to-back take on “Twilight Galaxy” and “London Half Life”. The venue pumped its lighting guns throughout the show, as the swiveling stage lights accompanied Haines’ crystalline voice. “Help I’m Alive” came in next with driving guitars, inspiring the crowd to point to the stage in time to the snappy snare drum.
“Satellite Mind” featured a nice guitar solo, which showed a good amount of musicality; a departure from the near-relentless deep bass covering most of the set. “Gimme Sympathy” was the reflective part of the show, with lyrics: “Got no time to take a picture. I’ll remember someday, all the chances we took.” “Sick Muse” followed with its super-catchy vocal sequencing. This last song had a familiar ring to it. In fact, the whole show was quite predictable.
The sonic highs and lows were all there, the singer chatting with the crowd was there (Haines went off on some riff about the greatness of Canada and the U.S.), and the sing-alongs were there too. “Dead Disco” had the audience singing down the scale, “la la la la la”.
While it’s nice that the band catered to musical expectations and played a seamless show, it cannot be said that anything spectacular happened. There was nothing to suggest that the band wished to cross the boundary from entertaining electro-rock morsels into deeper territory.
This is not to say there is no spark of artistry or talent, or that there was little thought put into the band’s music – there is clear potential as seen in the variation of styles and solos. But one would be off by a few meters to categorize Metric with any of the time-tested Canadian indie bands mentioned above.
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