Metronomy + Your Twenties @ Birmingham Academy 2 – 28th May 2009
There is one thing that puzzles about Metronomy, it’s one of those questions that doesn’t necessarily keep me awake at night but I would dearly love to know — Did Pip Payne ever pay back the £5000 to the Totnes car wrecker?
The line up of Metronomy had a slight re-shuffle recently, long time friend and stalwart of the band Gabriel Stebbing recently left to set up and further his own band ‘Your Twenties’. Despite concerned questioning that all may not have been rosy in the camp, Gabriel proves once and for all the split was amicable by supporting Metronomy on a number of dates during their current tour, including tonight at Birmingham’s Academy 2.
Gabriel introduces Your Twenties as “A traditional pop band from Devon”. They present a nice easily listenable style with zero pretence, happy pop lyrics and tracks born from the K.I.S.S. principle. Keep It Simple, Stupid. If you can imagine a soundtrack that gives you a hug then you wouldn’t be to far from imagining the type of music Your Twenties delivers. They have a sound that reminded me of ‘The Postal Service’ albeit slightly faster paced and a damn site more cheery. The band seems to draw inspiration from some pretty unique and unlikely sources. Their first song of the night ‘Annie’ was written in honour of Elastica’s Bass player — Annie Holland, amongst the set were songs titled ‘Billionaire’ (no idea what that might about?) and my personal favourite from their short and somewhat rushed set is a song about ‘Old People being in Love’. It was one of those songs that left you feeling as though growing old is probably something to actually look forward to, someday I to want to be lucky enough to be old and in love too…. Sadly, their set did appear a touch rushed but then according to Gabriel “They need to get back to London because they’d left the oven on”. We later learn the true reason; they had another concert to attend elsewhere. Oh well, hope to see you again soon…
Going to see a mostly elctro-synth based band live can be a somewhat tedious affair especially if the lighting and effects aren’t up to scratch. Fortunately Metronomy have overcome this obstacle by choosing to bring their own lights with them in the form of push lights. Attached to each band member’s chest, they light flash and flicker in synchronisation with one another. Some may say it’s cheesy, I’d say it’s a fun and gentle introduction into the eclectic madness that Metronomy are more than capable of offering. And that’s before witnessing what can only be described loosely as a dance routine. It’s a pretty safe bet but Metronomy are not going to win any dancing competitions any time soon. Not that they’d need to — where would the fun be in that?
Tonight’s main act kicks proceedings off with ‘Nights Intro’. We have original member Oscar Cash along side the bands newest additions – Anna Prior — formerly the drummer from Lightspeed Champion and Gbenga Adelekan all playing a single synth. The sound produced sounds exactly like the Intro to their Second album ‘Nights Out’. Imagine a severely addled mining colliery brass band on acid and your half way there. Front man and Metronomy’s founder Joseph Mount is alongside playing or rather plucking his guitar in a rather haphazard fashion. The sound is dirty, rough, a million miles from what you’d called polished but there’s something about it that gives you a feeling you’re going to be in for a good night. It’s not until after track 3 ‘On The Motorway’ that Joseph starts talking with the assembled somewhat New Rave / Seedy End of Sunset Boulevard / Halloween influenced crowd. Without exaggerating too much I’m pretty sure I saw a much younger looking Divine Brown — perhaps it was her daughter? A rather attractive looking skeleton in a petit Indian Head dress. A trio of ladies who might well have been out for afternoon tea and just happened to pop in for a look around and pull off some of the best hip swingin’ moves seen in a long time. Not forgetting a rather charming looking girl who must surely use the same Toy Town tailor as Noddy and Big Ears before finishing the look off with accessories from Mr T’s Jeweller.
When Joseph talks, he speaks with a lead crystal, cut-glass accent less voice, full of charisma, charm and a slight endearing cheekiness in the manner he communicates with the assembled audience.
It’s pretty difficult to pin point any particular high light, low light or even push light. It could be argued that the lighting was pretty poor and there was no dressing up of the stage, but it simply wasn’t needed. From my own perspective the entire set was simply awesome! If I had to dig deep and nail down some of the highlights I’d have to give a worthy mention to ‘What Do I Do Now’. A brand new track I’m assuming and hoping will be from their next album, mixing an intro that’s as soulful as an Electro Synth track with Vocoder sung lyrics could be, before exploding into a frenzied 150 bpm beat. The other highlight and I guess the one virtually every member of the crowd would agree on, would be the one and only encore song which followed what must have been a mere 30 second break. ‘You Could Easily Have Me’ was ironically the first track on their first album ‘Pip Paine (Pay Back The £5000 You Owe)’. But as a final track it just worked so well. Using a dirty punkesque guitar riff intro bringing in a thumping drum beat and then what can only be described as pure, uncensored synthesised madness. Simply awesome!
This evening Metronomy presented almost everything I love about live music, Masses of discreet humour — virtually motionless guitar playing which could only be described as a poorly animated puppet show. And a sound that comes across better and clearer live than it does when listening in the comfort of your own living room. This is exactly how gigs should be: Fun, intimate, hot and sweaty but hopefully not so hot that the front man can no longer play his guitar… It was close at times but Joseph managed to pull through perfectly whilst maintaining an audience who would have loved more, lot’s more.
Track List:
1, Nights Intro.
2, My Heart Rate Rapid
3, On The Motorway
4, Back On The Motorway
5, Holiday
6, Trick Or Treatz
7, A Thing For Me
8, Heartbreaker
9, What Do I Do Now
10, The End Of You Too
11, Radio Ladio
12, On Dancefloors
Encore
13, You Could Easily Have Me
Review – Lee Hathaway
Photos – Katja Ogrin