LiveMetronomy @ Lincoln Hall
Metronomy
Where: Lincoln Hall
When: October 27, 2011
Grade: 4.8 out of 5 meatballs
Reviewed by: Amanda Kaiser
It was a cold October eve outside Lincoln Hall, but indoors the funky tropical beats of English band Metronomy transported us out of the Midwest and onto a faraway beach with coconut-infused beverages, glistening bronzed skin being fanned with palm fronds and beach party-friendly bass lines.
The four-piece wasn’t a “real” band per se before 2008, when English frontman Joseph Mount stopped remixing artists and decided to kick it up a notch by incorporating permanent band members into the mix, including drummer Anna Prior, Oscar Cash on guitar and keyboard, and Gbenga Adelekan on bass and vocals. This also meant releasing the 2008 LP Nights Out and supporting touring bands like CSS and Bloc Party until their first U.S. headlining tour this fall. Chicago was the last stop before the group returned to their side of the pond. After their recent nomination for the 2011 Barclay Mercury Prize for The English Riviera, their most recent studio album and the first to receive a proper U.S. release, it’s no surprise the intimate venue was brimming with Chicagoans anticipating Metronomy, to the point that the body heat-laden air was almost... one might say... tropical? How fitting.
Class Actress took the stage first with slinky new wave 80s beats. The group is an electronic duo hailing from Brooklyn, and singer Elizabeth Harper crooned breathily into the mic and rocked an oversized blazer and mussed-up hair, looking like a doppelganger for Tiffany starring in Risky Business.
The quartet took the stage donning pulsing orbs fixed to their shirts that looked like election badges from outer space. Instantly, I was even more curious about this band from across the pond — turns out the orbs glowed to the beat of the music. Bad-ass. Not to mention the fact that their drummer was a girl. How often do you see that in a band with three dudes? Again, bad-ass. Alright Metronomy, you have my rapt attention.
The four-piece opened with the plaintively heartbreaking opening violin strains of “The English Riviera,” then segued into a lustful rendition of “We Broke Free” with Mount crooning “Thank God the gold is mine.” Very pirate-y indeed, and appropriate for the group’s island-themed album. “Love Underlined” followed, adorned with Mount’s falsetto touches and heaving synths. Though the band played a good chunk of their recent LP, they also treated the audience to “You Could Easily Have Me” off their earlier album, a standout of the night. Before diving into “The Bay,” the group’s album single that features a styled-up poolside music video with all the scintillating gloss of a magazine editorial, Mount joked with the audience about our good ol’ Lake Michigan, trying to compare it to a Bay. Uh, it kind of worked.
With the bass player's awkward robot dancing, corny dance-pointing to a band member during a solo, country club-cool attire and sonic gems of the electro variety, Metronomy was the perfect combination of sleek and silly.
The group returned to the stage for an encore to the delight of a feverish audience, “Everything Goes My Way,” their hit single off The English Riviera and my personal summery ringtone (for the record, I am in denial about the impending winter and I don’t plan on changing it any time soon). Drummer Anna Prior stood in for Veronica Falls singer Roxanne Clifford who sings on the track, and I barely noticed a difference.
What impressed me most was the polish with which the band performed all their songs — the crisp, sonic waves and clean synth beats could have easily been floating out from their studio-recorded 2011 album onstage. The group’s poppy, bouncy beats that bring to mind balmy days at the beach also venture into darker bass lines suggestive of nighttime debauchery.
That getaway with Metronomy was definitely a better deal than a round-trip ticket to the English tropics. I can’t wait to see what new projects the group takes on after their tour, but for now I’ll just drink this piña colada on the dusty inflatable raft I just dug up from my basement, put on my Ray-Bans and reminisce.
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