Metric and July Talk rock TD Place in Ottawa

Canadian rock institutions Metric and July Talk came to Ottawa Saturday and played to a packed crowd at TD Place.

Opening for both bands, Murray Lightburn, lead vocalist for The Dears, came onstage in a sharp suit and thanked the audience and other bands. His vocal range is impressive, from a gentle coo to a room-filling cry. Singing songs about love, loss and relationships with just an acoustic guitar, it felt a bit like watching an Open Mic Night at an Ottawa bar, if the vocalist were exceptional and never missed a guitar note.

July Talk followed with their blend of popular alt rock that can be heard on rock radio across Canada. As on their recordings, the band’s signature features are their vocalists: Peter Dreimanis’ deeply gravelly voice, and the contrast with the more gentle-sounding Leah Fay. There are certainly more heavy vocalists on Canadian radio, but none match Dreimanis’ voice in terms of its dry abrasiveness, allowing Fay to sound even more innocent alongside him on tracks like their hit “Guns and Ammunition”. The rest of the band performed solidly as well, with drummer Danny Miles providing a sharp thump to give their songs a certain edge, and guitarist Ian Docherty’s colourful riffs being particular standouts.

I was surprised to see Dreimanis dancing almost as wildly and fluidly as Fay, as if I’d expected him to be some tough guy who couldn’t cut loose. But cut loose he did, shimmying across the stage and swinging his mic feet into the air. For her part, Fay was even more energetic, gyrating across the stage, singing on top of the amp at the front of the stage, and reaching out to the crowd. The amp was about a foot tall, but when the petite Fay stared into Dreimanis’ eyes as she sang from there, she was still only slightly taller than him.

The band made good use of their stage setup, making full use of their space to dance and encourage the crowd to dance. There was a large balloon lamp that looked like the moon hanging above the stage, and at one point Fay memorably pulled it to the ground and lay on her back kicking at it as the “moon” lit up in time to the music.

July Talk are at their best when they push their boundaries; in particular Dreimanis’ voice seems underused when he sings a line that another talented vocalist could also sing. When Dreimanis is used to provide a certain darkness to a track, or to punctuate a chorus, as in “Push + Pull” and its spoken-word section, the band sounded really interesting and unique. Then, much of the instrumentation cut out and Dreimanis growled into the mic, until the rest of the song returned with a vengeance.

Metric opened with one of their first hits, “Dead Disco”, and from the way that song segued into “Twilight Galaxy”, and other songs segued seamlessly into the next, it was clear that the band had professionalized over more than a decade of tours. The songs were performed just like their album versions, when the band aimed for that. But tunes like the aforementioned “Twilight Galaxy” ended with wild solos and built-up guitar freakouts, with guitarist James Shaw becoming the centre of attention. The band was willing to have fun with their canon, and it allowed them to inject more energy into songs they’d played live hundreds, perhaps thousands of times.

Lead singer Emily Haines had some words of wisdom for the crowd. She talked about how we should enjoy being alive, right now, and how not everyone appreciates that. She had kind words for Ottawa, where she’d played so many times before (indeed, I’ve seen Metric perform in Ottawa at least twice before myself). She told a story about coming here on their first tour with Billy Talent, and how that band’s “serious” fans didn’t like Metric at all, but eventually the bands “brought the cafeteria together” and came to respect each other’s music. If you threw a bottle at her head during that Ottawa show, she said, she was thankful, because it helped make them the band they are today. It’s hard to imagine Metric being hated and having stuff thrown at them by literal punks these days, now that they can headline their own shows.

Haines took full advantage of her frontwoman status, dancing across the stage in a crop top and singing tunes from many parts the band’s discography (as usual, their long-delayed 2007 album Grow Up and Blow Away was not featured). Hits like “Dark Saturday” and “Now or Never Now” make good use of Haines’ lower range, hitting some lower notes like she always could but didn’t always emphasize. The lighting was interesting, with big white lights blasting into the audience during choruses, and more muted lines of light coming from a riser on the stage; at one point Haines walked back through the machine-generated fog towards these lights and she all but disappeared.

Metric’s new tunes evoked the same good feeling as deep cuts from their old albums do–if you liked the band before, you’ll probably like their new music too.  The band remains a staple of the Canadian rock scene, and this show did a good job of justifying their success. There’s every reason to believe they’ll keep putting out good music and solid performances for as long as they want to do so.

The tour hits Budweiser Gardens in London tonight before heading east for a pair of show in the Maritimes and then wraps up in Montreal at MTelus on May 5. For tickets and details visit www.julytalk.com or www.ilovemetric.com. Stay tuned we’ve got coverage coming up from the tour’s Toronto stop as well, our Angel Marchini was there and will have his review and photos coming up!

Written by Aaron NAva