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Metric

In Chicago, November 28, 2003

By Dean Ramos
Published: December 3rd, 2003 | 11:37am

Dean Ramos waxes honest about a recent Metric show and "Nuevo New Wave"

Anyone who's heard Metric's debut full-length Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? and then have seen the band live, know that as good as they sound from the comfort of your own home, they're even better up close and personal in a smoky, cramped club. Although having played to a somewhat modest crowd, Metric's self-described "Nuevo New Wave" sound is big enough to fill far grander venues than the Empty' Bottle (think "stadiums"), where they played to a number of their devoted and ever-growing following Thanksgiving weekend.

Detonating pop song length bombs of premeditated dance-synth fury, the band opened with the exquisitely infectious "IOU," as lead singer Emily Haines gyrated beautifully and mechanically to the beat between shifts at either keyboard in front of her. Soon enough, audience members followed suit, swiveling their hips and bobbing their heads throughout their all too short set.

Although there were a few glitches along the way (like the mic not being loud enough during a couple of songs, the snide comments from a couple of hecklers, and Haines' entirely accurate description of "long pauses between songs"), it was obvious that Metric was playing to a crowd of already die-hard fans or soon to be converts. The latter was proven as an older African-American gentleman in a Led Zeppelin T-shirt got down with his bad self during "Hustle Rose" and the former as Haines shared vocal duties with an obviously devoted young fan who knew every word to the kinetically charged number "The List."

From the raw, yet calculated guitars of James Shaw, to the dance-friendly beats of Joules Scott-Key, to the complex synthesizers and subdued, yet fervent, and utterly sublime vocals of Haines, the overall highlight of the show had to be "Dead Disco." While proclaiming the overall death of pop music, "Dead Disco" almost managed to ignite a dance floor frenzy among the crowd of usually apathetic and hard-to-please hipsters.

Pretty much exhausting their entire catalogue of material by the end of their set, the crowd was nonetheless disappointed by the lack of an encore, no doubt making their way to the merch table to willingly shell out the somewhat ridiculous $15 the band was charging for their Static Anonymity EP. Now that's the sign of a devoted and hard-won following.