When thinking of drummers who became front-men, few names come to mind. Phil Collins, Levon Helm, and the more famous figure of this generation, Dave Grohl, are some of them. Unfortunately, Sebastien Grainger (ex-Death From Above 1979) has yet to barely hit the drum head of this list of star composers. Grainger, along with his backing band The Mountains, filled the opening slot for the beloved Canadian super group Metric at New York City's Terminal 5 on June 17.
Dressed in conservative mad scientist costumes, Grainger and the band ran through a string of heavy distortion tunes that seemed to bleed into each other. A major reason why anyone at the show seemed to pay attention to the band was because of Grainger's past and now defunct project, DFA1979. The single off their self-titled album, Who Do We Care For?, seemed to be the tune that had the crowd paying attention to the stage instead of their cell phones or the gigantic disco ball hanging above their heads.
Though Grainger's songs were well-crafted and diabolical, the only highlight of his live show was watching men dressed up as scientists playing guitars, which still got old after a few songs. It was also easy to recognize his influence of thrash and grungy guitar riffs that were used heavily with DFA1979, and what made them so special was their neglecting of guitar lines. Who Do We Care For
After setting up for a sold-out show that was filled with Purchase students, Metric briskly and athletically performed mostly material from their new album, Fantasies, which recently just went gold. The set could be best described as athletic because singer Emily Haines had an incredible way of performing. During the show, she resembled a Pilates instructor after consuming an ice cream cone filled with cocaine.
Fantasies has been described as much more polished than Metric's older works and according to Haines, it is a record about finding a new identity. Most of all, it seemed to go over well with the New York City audience. I was pleasantly surprised at the crowd's response to the newer material, which was tremendously positive.
One great aspect of Metric's show was their ability to keep the audience wondering where they would be heading next. The band didn’t switch from one song to another and introduce it with a title and the adjacent album that it was featured on. Instead, they re-worked the songs and changed around arrangements which I found highly interesting.
Haines, who was never idle for a moment during the show, was on key for every note and didn't move off-pitch. She was dancing and working out like she was Jane Fonda. Another highlight of the set was her abstract rambling about humans at zoos eating cheeseburgers. I'm not exactly sure what she was talking about but it still provided for a captivating performance by one of best rock bands of today.
Setlist:
"Twighlight Galaxy"
"Help I'm Alive"
"Satellite Mind"
"Handshakes"
"Gimmie Sympathy"
"Sic Muse"
"Empty"
"Front Row"
"Dead Disco"
"Stadium Love"
Encore:
"Monster Hospital"
"Live It Out"
All pictures featured were taken by Bao Nguyen.
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