Metric and Zoe Co-Headline U.S. tour with supporting act July Talk

Metric and Zoé have been doing a co-headline tour since the beginning of this year with July Talk as their supporting act. Though the tour seems like a social experiment as both bands have a very different fan base, they do share some similarities and by exposing themselves to different audiences it is a great way to test their music and see how others react to it. Talking about some of the similarities between Metric and Zoé, their careers spans two decades and they both released a new album last year.  

Metric is a Canadian indie-rock/synth-pop quartet formed in 1998. The band’s lineup includes frontwoman Emily Haines, James Shaw, Joules Scott-Key, and Joshua Winstead. The band’s first LP was released in 2003 and they have been releasing a new album every 2-3 years ever since. The band is back on the road to promote their newest release, Art of Doubt which was released last year. The album was produced by Justin Meldal-Johnsen who has also worked with Paramore, Beck, and M83. Art of Doubt is Metric’s comeback after Pagans in Vegas and it sounds very different. The recording approach for Art of Doubt was more organic than the last few records and was kind of a back to basics.  This was the first time the band brought an outside producer and allowed James Shaw to ease up from trying to produce the album and focus more on playing guitar for the album. As a result, the album has a bigger guitar sound than the last few albums and since there are no virtual instruments, it allows the band to perform the songs live more naturally.

Zoé

Zoé is a Mexican alternative band led by Leon Larregui originally formed in 1997. Their career spans six studio albums and a very acclaimed live MTV Unplugged album. The band’s newest release, Aztlan won them a Grammy for best Latin rock album. Aztlan was produced by Craig Silvey who’s extensive portfolio includes Arcade Fire, Frightened Rabbit, and Arctic Monkeys. Zoé does a great job with this album by balancing between exploring with new sounds while at the same time revisiting the sounds from previous records.The album’s title refers to the mythical place of origin of the Aztec, and the songs deal with political and environmental events that have happened in their country recently.

JULY TALK

The three bands played a show at Nashville’s Marathon Music Works. July Talk warmed up the audience for the two headliners with a very theatrical and dynamic performance between Leah Fay and Peter Dreimanis. After July Talk left the stage, Leon Larregui and company came up on stage. Zoé fans greeted the band with great enthusiasm as it is not very often that Latin bands play in Nashville. Zoé’s set included mostly songs from Aztlan with a few of their classics in between. Zoé was very energetic and had a screen projected that reflected upon the band’s members with psychedelic patterns. The band finished their set without an encore which left their fans a little disappointed.

METRIC

When Metric took over the stage they opened their set with the second track from Art of Doubt, “Love You Back” and then proceeded to play “Synthetica” the title track from their previous album. Emily Haines ran across the stage as she smiled, showing her fans that she was as happy to be there as they were. The band’s 20 song setlist included mostly songs from their last album but they also played many from their acclaimed album Fantasies and some deep cuts. After finishing their first set, the band came back to perform a three-song encore which ended with “Help I’m Alive”.  Metric definitely does a great job building the bridge between alternative rock music and danceable pop and it is evident in their live shows.

Coverage by Jorge Sierra

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