We, the hipster indie cognoscenti (I'm being ironic), we develop passions for bands that are less than mainstream. We knowingly tell all our friends all about them, hoping they'll tell theirs, and 'our' bands will end up ruling the world. And at one and the same time we hope those same bands will keep on putting on intimate gigs for a couple of hundred people where we'll naturally be at the front and have a chat afterward. This has been the case with me and Metric. They used to be a minority interest in the UK at least. In Canada of course they are huge, also in territories like South America. When Altsounds met with front woman Emily Haines last year she admitted that maybe they had given more effort elsewhere and this is now reflected in the UK re-launch of "Fantasies". If there's any right in the world, they should be huge over here too. Given the sold out gig tonight at Shepherds Bush, just maybe they are going in the right direction. World domination ahoy.

A quick word on tonight's support Wolfgang before we get onto the main event. Nicely played indie rock with something of a big country twang to them, that and a slap funk edge at times. Worth getting there early to catch them, and I can see they have a few UK dates coming up so check them out.


The stage was now set, Emily's tambourine hanging slightly forlornly on the mic stand. Forlornly that is until the lights went down and the band hit the stage with an explosive entrance, the onslaught added too with banks of lasers firing at the audience, blinding even the wall flowers on the back row. I'm just glad I wasn't there to do photos, oh wait a minute, I was.


This full on assault set the tone for the night. It was big and brash, the exact opposite of their "Plug In Plug Out" acoustic EP, and felt quite showbiz tonight. I've seen Metric play on tiny stages. This was huge by comparison, the stadium band I'd yet to experience. I was up in the barrier when they were setting the stage up. It was noticeable and commented on by the front row faithful just how much of a running / dancing area they were able to give to Emily, and she surely made use of it. It was great, fabulous in fact, and gave the whole thing more of an arena and less of a club feel.


The set opened with 'Twilight Galaxy', drawn (like most of tonight's set-list) from "Fantasies", which is after all what they were here to promote. On record, this track comes in kind of quiet, but tonight the underlying percussive drive was to the fore, seguing nicely into 'Satellite Mind', a song that makes me recall the spirit of a slightly great 70's number called 'Radar Love', and also contains the great line "heard you fuck through the wall". It's wonderfully evocative and typical of the intelligence that Metric bring in spades to this indie rock territory.

'Help I'm Alive' is a huge audience favourite anyway, easy lyrics to get behind, and by now things were getting raised to the balconies and rafters, the front of the crowd no place for the timid. It wasn't till fifth song 'Empty' that we left "Fantasies" and went back catalogue to the "Live It Out" album. The "shake your head" line in here only added to the general sweat and head bang of the night.


By the time we got to 'Gold Guns Girls' I uncharacteristically found myself near the back of the hall, usually I'm a front row kind of guy. It was an expedition for me to be back here and find that even here near the toilets, the crowd were still shouting along undiminished with the lyrics, maybe even with more space to rock out and enthusiasm just as strong. I won't be so elitist in future. Until now it had felt a spectacle, perhaps the victim of too much expectation on my part, and funnily enough was from here at the back that I actually really started to get into it. The rock and roll moment for the night was Emily's wheeling arm during 'Gimme Sympathy', surely more Stones than Beatles tonight. Through the ever so strong 'Sick Muse' , a song that unexpectedly took off in the UK last year, and into old favourite 'Dead Disco'. "Tits out, pants down, overnight to London" - it's gotta be the only way to travel.

Theatrical poses were struck, hands up in the air, shivering and shaking for 'Stadium Love', evoking some primal struggle "taking off the gloves, spider versus bat, tiger versus rat, rabbit versus dove...every living thing pushed into the ring" and no-one's getting out without love, woo-hoos and crashing guitars.


First of the two song encore was another old favourite 'Monster Hospital', their most punk offering of the night, and then they closed with just James and Emily on stage to do 'Combat Baby', her voice and his acoustic guitar. It's been their way for a while to close gigs, even if the choice of song has evolved. It was during the encore that we got the most audience interaction and musings from the stage from the usually more verbose Ms. Haines. As it all came to an end, she told us that we had "made this night happen" and she was always going to remember it. That might sound trite, but it fits in with what I know about this band, that actually it does matter to them, hugely. I somehow think that when they are old and sitting on a porch they will truly remember every Shepherds Bush, Coachella and Manchester.