LIVE REVIEW: Metric @ SWG3, Glagow
19 song setlist spanning their 25 year career. This year METRIC are celebrating their quarter of a decade anniversary in style. Opening with near 11-minute epic lead single from their new album, Formentera is atmospheric builder Doomscroller, a bold choice – but METRIC are known for nothing less than impactful dark pop, something only they can do best.
Considering this is the Ontario natives first foray back on these shores since late 2018, you wouldn’t know it from the performance here tonight. It feels as though everyone in attendance here has merely blinked and half a decade has passed, but every element of what makes this band so unique and entertaining is ever present.
Led definitively by lead vocalist and songwriter Emily Haines, they oh-so effortlessly pull everyone here in this packed warehouse in tonight with immediacy and keep the tempo up, pulling from their extensive back catalogue early with bangers Gold Guns Girls and perfectly moody Dark Saturday helping to open this set and enter us into their beautifully synth-laden rabbits hole for the evening. What METRIC have mastered over their lengthy history is not only how to inject life through writing about some of life’s darkest moments with bouncy indie flair and silky-smooth vocals, but how to keep everything feeling bright and fresh and – ultimately, perhaps most importantly – incredibly fun.
Taking us through some of the key highlights of their most recent full-length, Formentera, Enemies Of The Ocean proves to shine and demands attention from everyone in the audience as Haine’s notes carry sheer power to the rafters. Supposedly slowing things down with a two-song acoustic version of Calculation Theme and fan favourite Combat Baby eliciting a full-scale sing-a-long, both performances rouse such rounds of applause that the show momentarily comes to a halt to appreciate such impressive displays of a band at the very peak of their careers.
“There’s no such thing as a Monday night when you’re at a METRIC concert, right?” Haine’s beckons to the audience as she re-emerges with a costume change, full of limitless energy and Cascades begins, a modern synth-pop classic which could easily find itself on CHVRCHES debut.
Fellow hit for the Canadian foursome Synthetica proves to be a total high, lending itself to showcasing the group firing on all cylinders and a euphoric moment for all involved; the crowd fully immersed and resoundingly chanting main hook “I’ll keep the life that I’ve got”. A final note ahead of their encore is the fitting, Gimme Sympathy, another deep pull from 2012 full-length, Synthetica and keeps every soul dancing until the very last beat.
Returning for two more songs, METRIC do things their own way and opt to drop worldwide calling card on Scott Pilgrim Vs The World soundtrack fame, Black Sheep upon their resurfacing and it’s slow-build into bouncing chorus’ is as glorious live as you’d expect, but it’s truly the evening closer Breathing Underwater which holds the most power in every sense; lyrically, fewer examples of thematically and musically which makes up METRIC’s very DNA exist, it’s polished modern dark pop roots in older influences and a lifetime of knowledge heard through powerful storytelling, it’s energetic yet emotional to the core, and it’s evidently the song many tonight have been most eager to experience again after a year gap of seeing the band live.
Tonight hasn’t felt to any like just a regular show, perhaps none more so than Haine’s herself who humbly asks in their final bars to “all stop for a second and take in this moment together, this is beautiful” as tears openly roll down her face, and she’s right. Evenings like this night are few and far between for all, catharsis at its absolute best, and a bold reminder of why METRIC are currently celebrating their 25th year as a band that continues to surprise everyone.
Rating: 10/10
Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in Glasgow from Chelsea Cochrane here:
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