Metric @ the 9:30 Club

Following Crystal Castles’ set—which seemed to leave the majority of the room scratching their heads—you would think that Metric would want to get right down to business. No so: the band chose to devote most of the first half of their set to new songs from their forthcoming, as-yet-unnamed album. While these tunes were not without their charm, the first portion of the set felt a bit murky and indistinct. Compounding this problem was the fact that no one seemed to recognize any of the new songs, which resulted in a pretty tepid audience response. Given Metric’s reputation for energetic live shows, it seems more than likely that the new songs simply haven’t had enough time to gel quite yet.

Luckily, Metric more than lived up to their reputation during the show’s second half. “Did the new shit freak you out?” Haines asked jokingly at one point. The slinky “Poster of a Girl” found the band warming up their chops; the next number, “Dead Disco,” got both the band and audience moving. Despite her delicate-looking garb--a black and white sequined dress--Haines let loose with a few bicycle kicks before leaning out into the crowd, squeezing the microphone stand suggestively between her knees. Live it Out opener “Empty” built up slowly, with James Shaw’s reverb-soaked guitar filling the room with a dense, eerie haze. Upon reaching the chorus, Shaw switched to distorted power chords, which fell in quick succession like drumbeats. “Shake your head/it’s empty,” Haines sang, arms akimbo while whipping her messy blond locks wildly from side to side.

Always a highlight, the miniature epic “Hustle Rose” opened with a synth arpeggiator before piling on electric piano, guitar and a fantastic double-time snare beat. Haines’ serpentine synth line guided the song organically from section to section and more and more heads could be seen bobbing with every passing verse. During the breakdown, the front half of the room went wild before the band pulled back on the reigns, keeping the song from spinning out of control. “Why is D.C. so fucking sick?” Haines asked afterward. “Why is it always so good here?” The band followed with “Handshakes,” whose shouted refrain of “Buy this car to drive to work!/Drive to work to pay for this car!” was realized as an angry commuter sing-along (and really, can you blame us for needing a little group therapy?).

Before exiting the stage, the band coaxed the audience to clap in time with some falsetto “Oohs,” which were then sampled and looped as the band left the stage. This disembodied loop played through the PA for a few minutes before Metric returned, immediately launching into “Monster Hospital”. At this point in the set, folks are usually getting ready to leave but judging by the audience’s demeanor, you would never guess it was the encore. “Monster Hospital” pushed the energy in the room to a new plateau and the Clash-referencing chorus of “I fought the war/but the war won” incited a deafening, audience-wide chant.

Metric may have gotten off to a slow start on Thursday night but by the end of their set, the band had proven that, given a little time, they can get all 1,200 of the 9:30 Club’s bodies moving. If you saw the band last year, you might remember that Haines called D.C. “a place we can rely on”. And if you saw them again this year, you’ll realize what high praise that was, coming from a band as reliable as Metric.