Metric LIVE

Well the journey into Manchester wasn't too bad and after a few false starts we found somewhere to park. Then came a round of drinks. The round was £8.40. Not bad you might think, surely they got four drinks in for that price...well no. For that we got two bottles of Magners. £4.20 for a Magners? Dear me. Needless to say that was the only drink we had in there before popping over the road to Brannigans, where £3 procured a pint of Strongbow AND a pint of Fosters. So we could almost have had three rounds for the price of one.

Still. I didn't buy the first round, so what do I care? NOTE: I did actually buy the next two rounds. I'm not a skinflint.

Anyway, we also had the problem of not having any food. Which meant I was a little more drunk than usual. And I must now say that other than the abysmal 54Degrees in Preston, the Life Cafe in Manchester is the worst music venue there is. Once again, as for the Pipettes, I could hardly see a bloody thing. Except that woman in front of me with her "I'd love a Babycham" knickers. I couldn't help but look, honest.

But then, there I was, minding my own business at the bar when a rather attractive lady brushes past me. I was giving her the eye, (I wasn't really, but it makes the story sound better) and then it dawned on me that she was actually Metric's lead singer Emily Haines. She was a little bit narky, but my god was she beautiful. Lovely hands. I can assure Jenny Lewis though that she's nothing to worry about, it was purely platonic ;-D.

We're not however, going to mention the strangely homo-erotic rapport I had with the lead singer of the support act.

Still enough of that and onto the concert. And what a ripsnorter it was too. Sticking mainly to their Live It Out album, although they did toss in my old favourite "Succexy", this was superb from start to finish. The slightly harder edge they have live over the records suits them well and gives them a real visceral power.

The band are tight, and as I said at the time of my album revue, Emily Haines has that certain star-power that sets her apart from the also-rans.

We could be a little upset at the relatively short set (although to put it in context it was longer than anything we've ever seen The Like do) and they didn't do an encore but it didn't really matter. They were that good.

I should also mention that the show was a very hot ticket indeed. The place was packed and I doubt that anyone went away unhappy. If you get the chance, I'd certainly reccommend checking them out...you won't regret it.