Metronomy

I popped along to see Metronomy with a friend who is a real-and-true-absolute fan of theirs. She's asked me to listen to them a million times - but no one ever does that unless you're forcibly sat down and made to, right?

Turns out this isn’t a problem with Metronomy. They make a great and sexy first impression live, and soon I’m belting out the lyrics as if I’d been an avid listener since 2007 (when they first appeared with this line-up). Besides the music, what's new to me (but immediately appreciated) are the band’s trademark ‘beating heart’ disk-lights pinned to their shirts, flashing in time to the music. Very good.

If you're a sucker for the kind of jerky rhythms that make one want to gyrate, Metronomy provide well in this area. Though under-prepared, the heavy bass introduction to ‘Heartbreaker’ has me pretty much as excited as is physically possible. Not to mention the rest of the crowd, who are going crazy - they already know what they are in for. Catchy doesn’t even begin to cover it.

Listening hard to the music, I find the more moody parts of the set, (‘We Broke Free’ from their recent album ‘The English Riviera’) more pleasing than their earlier Hot Chip-esque stuff. Listening on at home, I can see that it might eventually begin to grate. However, they do a seriously cool thing live and their show is worth the price of a ticket any day.