I KNOW, I KNOW YOU TRIED TO CHANGE THINGS

Salad Days/Dog Day Afternoon
July 15, 2006
Fort York

Fern was able to snag a couple tickets for the show for free from work, and asked me to accompany her to the first installment of Metric's mini-fest Dog Day Afternoon. The show was held at Fork York and this was the first time I've been there for a show. It's a good venue, lots of shade cast by the various buildings, tons of open grass areas for sitting, but no non-port-a-potty washrooms. A couple of negative things we noticed when we arrived, security at the gates did not allow anyone to bring in food or sealed bottles of water (unlike at the Olympic Island show). Also, everything inside in terms of refreshments was expensive. Beer was $6 a cup (and no deals if you purchased multiple beer tickets) and water was $3 a bottle. I found it funny that food and drink prices were so high after Ewan Exall (of Metric) had this to say about large festivals in NOW last week:

"Adam and I come from the punk rock side of things," explains Exall. "There was stuff I'd notice as a consumer at larger shows that made no sense. Why wasn't there decent food? Why was water $5? We wanted to create something in a festival setting that had the trappings of punk culture."

Anyways back to the show. We arrived just after Wintersleep finished their set, which is a total shame as I was hoping to finally catch them live. We also missed Land Of Talk's set (they opened the show) UPDATE: supposedly they didn't play according to their Myspace. The first band we saw (from the back of the beer garden where we decided to stay cause we found some space in the shade of the tent) was Holy Fuck. Their set was fun, kind of jam-bandey but in a dance music way. I'm not familiar with their material, but from what I heard, I think I may have to check them out. Up next was Electric Six, a band that should have never been included on the bill. They stuck out like a sore thumb, their performance seemed contrived and was incredibly boring. They played material from their yet to be released sophmore disc, and a couple "hits". I don't see why people like this band. Boring as hell. The Secret Machines were next on the bill. Having read praises of their live show in various corporate music rags and on the blogs, my hopes were pretty high for their set. And....they delievered. They remind me of a less droney/less assaulting Jesus and Mary Chain, they were freakin loud, and I couldn't believe that the sound they produced came from only three people. Again, not familiar with their material, but I enjoyed their set immensley. Fiery Furnaces were next. Again, not the hugest fan of this band, their one of those "hip" bands that people name drop. I absolutely LOVE their EP, but am not a fan of their actual albums (Blueberry Boat was such a chore to listen to). Live, they're all over the place. Nothing sounds like it does recorded. For instance, Single Again from their EP, is brilliant recorded, great electronics in the background, totally danceable, but live, it was a fast guitar-driven song. I don't know, maybe I was tired, or in a bad mood, but I didn't really enjoy their set. Wrong venue maybe?

Metric closed the show and walked onto their smoke-filled, strobe light stage to great fanfare. They were the draw of the show for the vast majority in attendance. They launched into IOU which caused a mass of people to run like maniacs from the beer gardens to the stage. Metric as always incredible live, they're a party band that can get the crowd worked up and excited. Their set was full of the hits, they played Combat Baby and Poster Of A Girl. Emily is a much stronger front woman that I had anticipated, she can totally hold her own on stage and has the cutest stage moves including full leg kicks. Amazing.

We ended our evening at Mel's on Bloor for Corona and poutine topped with montreal smoked meat (Fern's choice). My arteries still feel clogged from the mass of cheese, meat and gravy I consumed. Good times.

Watch IOU live at Dog Day Afternoon here (via YouTube).