July Talk and Metric
Budweiser Gardens // London, Ontario // April 28th, 2019
Photos and review by Karen K. Tran
After spending two months touring together in the US, Metric and July Talk took the Art of Doubt Tour back to their home and native land of Canada. The 12 date cross-country tour took them to London, Ontario on April 28.
July Talk
July Talk opened the show with an acknowledgment that their tour visited venues that were situated on Attawandaron territory, an ancestral land of Canadian Indigenous groups before launching into early singles “Headsick” and “Guns + Ammunition,” from their 2012 self-titled debut album to get the crowd jumping. Their set was decorated with a glowing full moon balloon in addition to black and white visuals from their album and music videos which were projected onto a large full moon background.
The unyielding intensity of lead singers Peter Dreimanis and Leah Fay were unmatched, both in terms of vocal prowess and their extreme stage presence which commanded the audience’s attention. The two had cut each other’s hair before the tour, and sported identical buzz cuts at the show. Despite the crunchy guitar riffs, Fay showed off her dance background (she has a BFA in contemporary dance), gliding around the stage lithely and ballerina-like. July Talk’s signature sound of Dreimanis’s gravelly voice and Fay’s elegant voice intertwined to present a flux and flow in their performance, apparent in crowd favourites like “Beck + Call” and “Push + Pull” which closed their set.
Though July Talk have yet to release new music since their 2016 LP, Touch, fans are hopeful to hear details about their third album, which seemed to have been recorded last summer.
Metric
With last year’s release of their seventh album, Art of Doubt, Metric have revived their setlist with punchy guitars and snazzy keyboards, reminding fans who they are. Their set was filled with visuals of bright lights and dark silhouettes; it was energetic but interposed with drama during the slow songs. With the accumulation of songs over a near two decade-long career, Metric played only a handful of songs from their back catalogue such as “Dead Disco” and “Monster Hospital,” opting to show off sleek new songs like “Dark Saturday” and “No Lights on the Horizon” instead.
Long-time fans that have been seeing Metric play live for years could recognize popular hits like “Breathing Underwater” and “Help, I’m Alive” as setlist mainstays. Though it’s still exciting to hear the crowd favourites, Metric could challenge themselves by giving the songs a new treatment and changing up the tempo or even playing it acoustically, as these songs seem to have been left unchanged tour after tour, with similar lighting designs and a safe but mild performance from the band.
Guitarist Jimmy Shaw really shone during Metric’s set with his iconic guitar solos, and that’s where it felt like the audience connected with the music the most. The band ended the night with a five song encore that left the crowd invigorated.
