With their latest album Formentera released a little over a month ago, Metric hit the road for the Doomscroller Tour. The west coast log of the tour included Vancouver’s own Dear Rouge, and made a stop at the gorgeous Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver.

The very first time I saw Dear Rouge perform -- at the Red Room, as part of the Peak Performance Project ten(!) years ago -- I distinctly remember thinking they gave off Metric vibes, so I was really happy that they were opening this show. Especially since the last few times I saw them were at outdoor music festivals, so it was great to get them in a proper venue, particularly one like the Orpheum.

With a large neon 'Dear Rouge" sign behind them, the band opened with "Relationship Problems" off their latest album Spirit. They split the short set between new songs, like the biting takedown of influencers, "Fake Fame", as well as older tunes, getting everyone to sing along to "I Heard I Had".

Performing at the storied theatre seemed to put the always-energetic band on top of their game, Danielle McTaggart’s voice ringing through the theatre as she bound across the stage, backed by Drew McTaggart ripping it up on guitar, and the rest of the band holding their own.

They closed out the set with their ode to the best movie theatre in Vancouver, "Meet Me At The Rio", building to a huge and raucous finish.

After the brief intermission Metric took the stage, with a setup that included some "modular" keyboards -- four different keyboards all on stands with castors, so they could be rearranged at a moment's notice -- and an intense light show.

They kicked off the show with the tour's namesake "Doomscroller", the 10-minute epic going through almost as many twists-and-turns as the entire rest of the set. From there they went on to play cuts from the new album, including my favourite so far, the moody & ominous "All Comes Crashing", as well as classics like "Gold Guns Girls" and the thumping "Help I'm Alive", Emily Haines’ incomparable energy leading the fist pumping through the crowd, as Jimmy Shaw’s guitar wailed.

Part way through the set bassist Joshua Winstead and drummer Joules Scott-Key took a break, so Emily and Jimmy could perform a couple acoustic songs, including "Combat Baby" which got an overwhelming response from the crowd; literally, as Haines had to pause and compose herself at the bridge before continuing, and could barely get the last line of the song out at the end.

The band returned for more singalongs to “Gimme Sympathy” and “Sick Muse”, before the main set ended appropriately enough with the final song on the new album, “Paths in the Sky”. But of course, they weren't done and returned moments later for an encore consisting of another one of my all-time faves from them, "Black Sheep" (coincidentally being performed on the 12th anniversary of the release of Scott Pilgrim) and capping off the night with Emily Haines saying how after the last two and a half years, she could have stayed on stage forever, but reluctantly ending the show, sending the crowd home with "Breathing Underwater".

A lot of the shows I’ve seen so far this year have had a sort of catharsis to them, like a collective exhale. Maybe it was the size of the venue, the fact that it was still early in Metric’s tour, or a combination of various things, but this show felt a perfect example of that. There was an energy in the theatre, both on-stage and buzzing through the audience, that’s not going to be matched any time soon, and it made the bands, and the show, all the better for it.

Dear Rouge Setlist
Relationship Problems
Live Through the Night
Fake Fame
I Heard I Had
Black to Gold
Gimme Spirit
Tongues
Meet Me at the Rio

Metric Setlist
Doomscroller
Gold Guns Girls
Dark Saturday
What Feels Like Eternity
All Comes Crashing
Help I'm Alive
Formentera
Cascades (acoustic)
Combat Baby (acoustic)
Enemies of the Ocean
Gimme Sympathy
Sick Muse
Now or Never Now
Paths in the Sky
[encore]
Lost Kitten
False Dichotomy
Black Sheep
Breathing Underwater

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Metric with Dear Rouge @ Orpheum Theatre -- August 13, 2022

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