Be The Riottt! - METRIC

In the last six months I have become increasing intrigued by EMILY HAINES, lead singer of METRIC and part-time singer for BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE and STARS. I had toyed with the idea of catching METRIC's set at Coachella back in May, but since I wasn't too familiar with their albums at the time, they lost out to one of the thirtysomething other acts I did end up seeing that weekend.

Then, over the summer I rented the indie flick CLEAN, in which METRIC performs in a seedy rock club at the very beginning of the film. I immediately wanted to know who this band was and when I discovered that it was METRIC, I was kicking myself for missing them at Coachella. Ever since this revelation, I have scanned the internet for more info about EMILY HAINES and was ecstatic to find out that she was also releasing a solo album this year, "Knives Don't Have Your Back". So, needless to say, I was very excited to see METRIC at last weekend's Be The Riottt! Festival.

The set was, for the most part, solid. But perhaps I placed too much expectation on them to really be blown away. And strange as it may seem, I think Haines may have felt the same way in return. Throughout the show it seemed the singer was struggling to win the love of the main stage crowd. At one point the increasingly concerned Haines flat out asked the stoned and seemingly immobile crowd, "Are you okay?" When she got a lukewarm reaction, things just got stranger, as Haines meandered into a sort of art-chick rant of a monologue, almost losing the crowd completely. That was until the band brought out the big guns and slammed through a number of their more popular uptempo rockers like "Monster Hospital" and "Dead Disco".

All in all, the band sounded tight, but the thing about it is, Haines steals every ounce of attention from her bandmates, that I occasionally forgot that they even existed. She is absolutely mezmerizing to watch, at times abusing her keyboard like a scorned lover, shaking her beautiful mess of blonde hair into a frenzy, or slithering suspiciously around her bandmates like a hunter after it's prey.

Art Rock + Drama = METRIC