I was completely wrong on Wednesday when i had written that English four piece band Metronomy was a relatively unknown act. Arriving at the Mod club on Wednesday, I was thrilled to find the venue gloriously packed from wall to wall. That thrill would soon change to elation as Metronomy put on an energy filled show easily worth the price of admission.
Here are some random highlights:
It’s refreshing to see a band have fun both with their music and live show. Each member of the band wore matching light fixtures which would occasionally light up. Throw in some well timed choreographed dance moves and you have a good recipe for a fun show.
It’s completely reasonable to suggest that Metronomy belong in that special class of bands that you can say that no band sounds like Metronomy and Metronomy sound like no one else. No other bands make such good use of: squeals, high pitched effects and average male falsettos. It’s like they looked around at all the random sounds of life and decided to incorporate it into their tracks. Take a listen to the track Heartbreaker and try to decipher all the effects used. It shouldn’t work but it does with Metronomy.
Not many bands can get away with two instrumentals and not kill the audience but the dueling synthesizer instrumental halfway through the set not only energize the crowd but made me want to play the original NES for some reason. Oscar Cash, the synthesizer wizard/saxonphonist was a wizard behind the keys and added a lot of what I assume was slight improvisations to the songs, giving the tracks a nice organic live sound.
1-2 punch of new favorite Everything Goes My Way (featuring the only vocal performance by drummer Anna Prior) and old favorite Radio Ladio was a great way to bridge discographies and end off the set.
Metronomy was much much better live than I could have ever expected. Do yourself a favor and check them out.