Metronomy




Metronomy Biltmore Cabaret, Vancouver BC January 24 By Brock Thiessen It’s hard to know where to start here: with the performance or the audience-fuelled shit-storm that followed. Both no doubt deserve their fair share of words, but since it was actually Metronomy’s name on the ticket, and not some feral crowd of party kids, we’ll start with them. Taking the stage to a beyond-capacity Biltmore, the Brits quickly made it clear they were all about Nights Outs, the synth-minded trio’s 2008 soundtrack to wild weekends, lustful make-outs, broken hearts, and of course, dancing. Opening with the funked up “Holiday,” the band rarely strayed from their latest slab of abstract pop, hitting such high-water marks as “My Heart Rate Rapid,” “Radio Ladio” and of course the beyond-hooky floor burner, “Heartbreaker.” And while Metronomy relied strictly on pre-recorded beats, their keyboard-bass-guitar set-up held a lot of weight live, with vocalist Joseph Mount filling the front-man shoes surprisingly well as the band blurred into a constant state of motion. It also didn’t hurt that the trio came sporting their chest-affixed push lights, which were regularly flicked on and shining bright on an otherwise lightless stage. As for that aforementioned shit-storm, let’s just say that for once you actually felt sorry for security, who had their hands full dealing with speaker dancers, stage invaders and, believe or not, numerous head-kicking crowd surfers. Rarely did a minute go by where you weren’t pushed, shoved or covered in drink, and all as a result of an audience that seemed hell-bent on going crazy simply for the sake of going crazy — musicians on stage not required. And with Metronomy not exactly being the most punk of bands, all the hooliganism left them looking more than just a little frightened, repeatedly pleading for the crowd to please “dance in reverse.” But hey, at least they were dancing.

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