Finally, after years of cultivating a healthy rock crush on Emily Haines, we finally got to see Toronto-based Metric perform in Denver at the Ogden this past Thursday.  The last attempt ended in purchased tickets being untorn, no thanks to a front range blizzard and a broke down tour bus.  Fortunately this time round, mother nature took a break and the show went on as planned.  Once the four canucks took the stage, an electro-rockadelica intro melted into a furry of stadium rocking tracks from their new album “Fantasies.”  Emily Haines was in full character, dancing and jumping while belting out highlights including the first single “Help I’m Alive,” an inspired take of “Gold, Guns, and Girls,” and “Gimme Sympathy,” another new favorite of ours.

(Thanks to Robert Castro and Randy Washington of Denver blog A Walking Disast3r for the epic photos above!)

Before performing “Gimme Sypathy,” Emily broke down the writing process, asking “who would you rather be, the Beatles or the Rolling Stones?” and stating that the question and keystone lyric means different things to different people.  Guitarist James Shaw expressed his troubles troubles with that question, stating that “the Rolling Stones went corporate and the Beatles broke up…”  Emily then went on to say that Metric was “the Canadian version of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones…with me on vocals.”  Although we cannot confirm this aspiration, they are definitely doing a damn good job of creating their own place in our list of current rock icons.

The highlight of the night was a stunning performance of the dance inducing “Dead Disco,” complete with a sythesizer breakdown that left us eager for the comeback that hit hard and deep.  At the end of the night we decided to give Metric’s live performance a unanimous BDN stamp of approval.  The drums were tight, bass on point, and guitar solid and confidant.  Emily’s voice was stretched at times, no doubt a symptom of the band marking the halfway point of their US tour and her rambunctious stage act, but she still managed to remind us why we love them so.

If you haven’t found yourself a copy of the new “Fantasies” album yet, we highly recommend it, by far one of the most well rounded they have produced to date.  Also of note is that Metric released this album without a major record label, so they are banking all the profit while delivering a bold slap to the face of the failing corporate music biz with every record sold.  Seems as with all things these days from car companies failing to banks going under, the power is shifting to the creators and away from the business models of late.

Bonus Remixes:

Metric - Help I’m Alive (Immuzikation B-ting Like A Hammer Remix)

Metric - Soft Rock Star (Jimmy vs. Joe Mix) HIGHLY RECOMENDED