Historicist: "The city that nobody loves"
Elsewhere in the Ist-a-Verse
As part of the University of Toronto's frosh week, the Students' Administrative Council hosted Metric and the Weakerthans on their back campus on Friday evening. Ignoring, for a moment, that Ryerson hosted Metric for their frosh week last year, that the band was delayed by an hour, seemed even grumpier than the increasingly impatient crowd when they arrived, played a short set, and didn't play an encore (met with audience shouts of "now I'm definitely not buying a t-shirt"), it was...uh, well it was a good set. Emily Haines managed to be indifferent and charismatic at the same time, and the band went through a few mostly-new tracks, with a slight reinterpretation of "The Police and the Private" and a drawn-out and distorted "Dead Disco" serving as the show's high points.
Still, most in the crowd who stayed for the whole show (to get from the start of the Weakerthans' set - who played for forty minutes - to the end of Metric's - who played for an hour - took a total of three and a half hours) left a bit jaded, especially after the band decided to forgo an encore. Then again, the audience was composed entirely of U of T students, so the jadedness may just go with the territory.
Stay tuned for next year's U of T concert, when the hallowed if slightly uncool institution will probably host The Stills, Ryerson's headliner this year. Hey, at least they're trying.
More photos from the concert are available in the show's Flickr set. Emily Haines, Metric's lead singer, will be headlining V Fest in Broken Social Scene this afternoon.
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That's not jadedness... that's apathy. Big difference.
The Weakerthans are great. How was that set? I had no idea they were playing in Toronto or I woulda tried to sneak in...
It would've been easy to sneak, Gary, believe me - it was in the huge field right off Harbord, and a lot of my non-university friends came.
I'm not a huge fan of the Weakerthans, and I thought they were allright - their set was solid, but for some reason they reminded me a lot of a kind of less poppy version of Sloan and Nada Surf. Which isn't the best. I wasn't paying much attention to them, though, and I haven't heard anyhing they've recorded yet.
Next week: Metric disappoints people who aren't fans, again.
I forget where I read an article about how Metric sucks. I think it was in NOW.
Enjoy!
The thing is, I am a fan of Metric. I think their latest CD is alllright, but their earlier stuff is really really really really good. "Grow Up and Blow Away" and "Hustle Rose" and all that good stuff.
Yet another report of Metric phoning-in a bare minimum of a show. This is characteristic of a band either not getting along or delusions of grandeur too early in their career. Either way, it indicates -- sadly -- that Metric could be circling the drain.
Metric, pull yourselves together or don't bother performing. So much transparent disdain for appearing at Frosh Week and the MMVAs isn't rock 'n roll; it's annoying.
Metric was fantastic at Salad Days, or Dog Day Afternoon, or whatever that concert at Fort York was called.
I agree with Marc above. I think it's the former -- they got so much hype from being linked to Broken Social Scene that they don't even TRY. Blech. Their music is boring to me anyway.
I agree: no encore SUCKS. But Metric still rules in my books. I think you hit the nail on the head with the U of T comment. We're all pretty jaded, aren't we?