I'll start off by saying that each show on this tour had ticket proceeds going towards local charities. In Vancouver, the benficiary was
Covanent House.
Due to the a little mishap at the door, I did not see Sebastian Grainger's set. He is of course, of the Death From Above 1979 fame. I did however see him in the crowd watching The Dears.
When I eventually got into the Vogue, there were two things that I noticed. First, there were pro cameras all over the place. They built a (probably) temporary platform in the middle of the room to accomodate a large midroom overhead camera setup. All bands were filmed and it looks like we'll be seeing a dvd or video of some sort in the future, hopefully. The second was, it was cold inside. Apparently the heat didn't work in the building. After all those renovations and you guys couldn't spring for heating? Actually nevermind, that actually worked in my favour, seeing as how I didn't want to use their bag check anyways.
Admittedly, I've never really liked the Dears enough to pay to see them live. Their current incarnation doesn't really change my perspective on things, but I will say that I did enjoy their set. For those who don't know, I guess I would describe them as indie rock with soul. Also of note, it was nice to see Chris McCarron, formerly of Land of Talk, still playing music. He's not playing bass anymore, sharing guitar duties with someone else.
Tokyo Police Club is also one of those bands I would enjoy as a opener, but not enough to pay for a headlining set. To be honest, I find most of their songs to be too similar. They did seem to have most of the crowd moving their entire set though.
The last time I saw Metric, the tour was billed as "Road Testing New Songs." That's what they should have called this tour, as there were waaaaaay more new songs played this time around. The majority of the songs played were unreleased. In addition to the pro-cams, there were two large speakers in the back of the room, giving the show a sort of quadraphonic sound experience. Just like the 5.1 surround in your house. It was mainly used during echo-y delay effects. They started their set with their newest single "Help, I'm Alive." Didn't really like the extra backing vocals the guys added during the chorus. "Gold Girls Gun" has a New Wave / Upbeat - Dark Synth feel to it and a cool solo by James. "Twilight" was a slower number. "Lazy Dancer" is a middle tempo mover, which draws similarites to "Hustle Rose." In between the new songs, old favourites like, "Dead Disco", "Handshakes" and "Post of a Girl" were played. The version of "Calculation Theme" I heard last time was played. As I said before, I like the album version better, but I also realize it was probably also be a pace killer when they did play it. They ended their main set with "Stadium Love", which is as you would guess, has stadium rocking potential. After a very short encore, another new song was played followed by an old one. Before the final song, Emily had a little heart to heart with the crowd, sharing some of her insecurities with the audience. She told the crowd that in her head she sometimes thinks her stage antics aren't very cool and other some other self conscious related issues. It was touching, but a little awkward to hear. Live it out was the slow stripped down version, which was a pretty good closer. Overall a pretty nice package of Canadian talent and for a good cause. I was hoping for some Christmas songs...
SetlistHelp, I'm Alive
Give Me Sympathy
Gold Girls Gun
Poster of A Girl
Satellite Mind
Empty
Twilight
Lazy Dancer
Dead Disco
Handshakes
Calculation Theme
Combat Baby
Stadium Love
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Freddie/Black Sheep
Monster Hospital
Live it Out
$40/$0
Labels: metric, sebastian Grainger, the dears, tokyo police club, vancouver, vogue theater
