metric, koko, 23rd may 2010

Ah, Metric. Until about 2006 I hadn’t stumbled across them properly, but since then they have gone on to become one of my favourite bands, and they have the honour of being one of five different bands who have their own playlist on my iPod (for fans of completeness, the others are Art Brut, Pavement, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Radiohead). Furthermore I have been to see them on a few occasions and not once have I been disappointed and as such, the chance to see them on a brief stop in London was obviously going to be snapped up, and so I headed down to Koko in Camden for the gig.

It didn’t start off too well though. It is unseasonably hot in London at the moment, with today’s temperature sneaking up to 30 degrees (trust me, this is hot for us in May), and yesterday was not much cooler. Unsurprisingly it was rather warm in the venue, and with my stomach by no means feeling 100% for some reason, this wasn’t great. Even worse was the support band, Baby Monster. I’d read previously that they have been compared to MGMT, and I will not even pretend to be a massive fan of them, but they didn’t sound very similar to me. Mainly because the couple of MGMT songs I know have decent tunes. I have no idea whether Baby Monster have any decent tunes as all I could hear was bass, lots and lots and lots and lots of bass. I’ve read elsewhere that the bass was so substantial that it managed to wobble someone’s drink over and spill it, which doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. Maybe if they turn the bass down from 1000000% then they might be alright, but I guess we’ll never know. And I’m aware that it might not have been their fault, or it might have just been because of where I was standing, but meh. TOO. MUCH. BASS.

Metric had a better balance of bass, and as such were far more enjoyable. The fact they played good songs from start to finish also helped matters too, as a predictably Fantasies (their most recent album) heavy setlist whistled along nicely. Opener Twilight Galaxy got its now customary extended ending, a version which makes it pretty ideal to start a set off with, and this was followed by Satellite Mind, which got singer Emily Haines bouncing around the stage as is pretty much customary when she’s not stuck behind a keyboard or two.

Of the tracks from Fantasies that got an airing (and to be fair, that was pretty much everything), Gimme Sympathy was an inevitable highlight. It’s a truly excellent song on record as it is, but live it’s just that bit more special. Gold Guns Girls is also excellent, what with the usual extended treatment that at least half the songs got benefitting matters, and Emily getting the guitar out for some double guitar hardcore riffing action with regular guitarist Jimmy Shaw (note: maybe a slight exaggeration).

Not much of their pre-Fantasies back catalogue made an appearance sadly, with Live It Out being represented by singles Empty,
unsurprisingly extended and awesome, and Monster Hospital, which was still good but always seems to lack a bit of oomph live I feel. There were just a couple of Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? tracks too, with Metric behemoth Dead Disco (guess what, this was
substantially extended as well, and was suitably awesome) being joined by Combat Baby taking the now-traditional role of acoustic set closer. I don’t think I’ve seem them do Combat Baby whatsoever before, so this was a treat and a half, and the video below gives you a good idea of the singalong vibe that this song had.

Of course, despite this being a rather awesome gig, there is always room for a whinge. This was pretty much song for song the same setlist that they played last year at the Electric Ballroom. Having looked at setlists for other gigs they’ve done in the last year, it seems almost identical to those as well. This was to be expected, what with them being over here to promote the re-release of Fantasies rather than to road-test or promote any new material, but maybe it would have been nice to slip a bit of variation in there, play a non-predictable old song or something.

In the end though this is a minor quibble. Metric delivered a top-notch, energetic show, full of great performances of excellent songs, a performance that had you already looking forward to the next time you’re lucky enough to go see them. Luckily enough, the next time for me just happens to be tonight!