(Because shutter shades aren't cool and never were in the first place. © 2009 Shandra Stephenson.)
Entering the Media Club is like entering the den of something that wants to sleep with you. This particular event, lit dimly with candles, had several black wooden blocks pushed together in the middle of the dance floor resembling a makeshift bed. I feel right at home.
The canned music stops and the lights dim. Everyone shouts and claps, expecting Metric's Emily and Jimmy to pop out from behind the red curtain backdrop, but instead they come fumbling awkwardly through the dense crowd and clamber onto the stage. Emily plunks down in front of the piano, Jimmy adjusts his guitar strap, and they start off with a new song off Fantasies called “Gold Guns Girls”. Emily's voice is haunting, engulfing the crowd. It seeps, it lures. It's fantastic.
(© 2009 Shandra Stephenson.)
After playing “Help I’m Alive” and “Sick Muse”, Emily and Jimmy start the rock star banter. Emily tells the room that she wanted this concert to be like a David Lynch film but there was no room to park the car inside so they, unfortunately, couldn't light the stage with its headlights. She motions lazily to the pile of black wooden blocks and says, “but we have a motorcycle.” After a few more songs, Jimmy pops over to the piano. Opening on the song’s trademark flourish, he plays Pink Floyd's "Nobody Home". A rare treat, and an intensely intimate moment in that cozy a space.
On “Gimme Sympathy”, house lights up, everyone knows the lyrics and has their own answer to “Who would you rather be? / The Beatles or The Rolling Stones”. A few people yell out “The Beatles” and one fan screams “Hendrix!” at the top of her lungs. Emily herself throws one out there: “The Kinks!” Everybody cheers.
(Archive photo: Emily Haines of Metric showing off her new Hovercharms™ at the 2009 Zune Concert Series in Whistler, BC. © 2009 Shandra Stephenson.)
Closing on “Live It Out”, Emily gets the whole crowd to sing the chorus over and over until we're all dizzy with well-being. They leave the way they came in, fumbling through the crowd awkwardly. Right before Emily disappears off into her greenroom at the back of the bar, I see a girl reach out, touch her arm, then break down into tears.
What a show.
The canned music stops and the lights dim. Everyone shouts and claps, expecting Metric's Emily and Jimmy to pop out from behind the red curtain backdrop, but instead they come fumbling awkwardly through the dense crowd and clamber onto the stage. Emily plunks down in front of the piano, Jimmy adjusts his guitar strap, and they start off with a new song off Fantasies called “Gold Guns Girls”. Emily's voice is haunting, engulfing the crowd. It seeps, it lures. It's fantastic.
(© 2009 Shandra Stephenson.)
After playing “Help I’m Alive” and “Sick Muse”, Emily and Jimmy start the rock star banter. Emily tells the room that she wanted this concert to be like a David Lynch film but there was no room to park the car inside so they, unfortunately, couldn't light the stage with its headlights. She motions lazily to the pile of black wooden blocks and says, “but we have a motorcycle.” After a few more songs, Jimmy pops over to the piano. Opening on the song’s trademark flourish, he plays Pink Floyd's "Nobody Home". A rare treat, and an intensely intimate moment in that cozy a space.
On “Gimme Sympathy”, house lights up, everyone knows the lyrics and has their own answer to “Who would you rather be? / The Beatles or The Rolling Stones”. A few people yell out “The Beatles” and one fan screams “Hendrix!” at the top of her lungs. Emily herself throws one out there: “The Kinks!” Everybody cheers.
(Archive photo: Emily Haines of Metric showing off her new Hovercharms™ at the 2009 Zune Concert Series in Whistler, BC. © 2009 Shandra Stephenson.)
Closing on “Live It Out”, Emily gets the whole crowd to sing the chorus over and over until we're all dizzy with well-being. They leave the way they came in, fumbling through the crowd awkwardly. Right before Emily disappears off into her greenroom at the back of the bar, I see a girl reach out, touch her arm, then break down into tears.
What a show.
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