Live Review: Metric, Glass Towers, Spirit Valley

Diehard Metric fans were waiting outside the Enmore on Thursday night before doors even opened, leaning against tour posters and smoking. That cluster made up most of the audience for opener Spirit Valley, a local “doomshine” duo. What is doomshine? Seemingly it's a mix of washed out shoegaze soundscapes and wailing metal riffs. They proved to be an almost incongruous late addition to the line-up. It just seemed a little too heavy for the indie- and electro-pop acts to come.

Glass Towers were meanwhile a tight four-piece, led by the enthusiastic Benjamin Hannam. Despite his best efforts, the steadily growing audience were never able to match his almost manic energy. As a whole, Glass Towers seem to have come to the indie-rock scene four years too late; Hannam's vocals have that '00s Death Cab American twang to them, while Sam Speck's jangly riffs seem to have been learned from repeated viewings of The OC. Crowd favourite was, surprise, their single Jumanji , which proved that the group have the technical chops to create catchy indie-pop.

Headliners Metric were met with squeals when they took the stage. The focal point was undeniably Emily Haines, the awkward-quirky frontwoman, who rocked denim cut-offs and a tasseled leather jacket. Her vocals carry Metric's songs, which range from emotional social commentary to more upbeat empowered tunes; her voice is rich and honeyed, switching between a higher sweeter register and an almost throaty tone. She kept the crowd mesmerised for almost five songs without having to say anything more than “Hey!” and “Sydney!” before her brand of off-kilter banter begun, including quotes from Kim Gordon and a call to arms for the “weird ones”.

They opened with tracks off 2012's synth-heavy Synthetica (it's all in the title, really) including Nothing But Time, Youth Without Youth and Speed The Collapse. These huge songs really captured attention, the atmosphere heightened by roving strobe lights, a wind machine and Haines' on-stage bounce. But Metric were also determined to include tracks from their earlier albums, which kept the set textured, as the tempo switched between loud bubbly singles and quieter emotional moments.

Songs from 2009's Fantasies received the greatest crowd response, with Stadium Love and encore Gold Guns Girls getting the diverse crowd up and dancing. That crowd included young people hooting and hollering, some incredibly inebriated middle-aged-man-dance-parties, and even nanna doing the twist. They finished their encore with an acoustic rendition of Gimme Sympathy, devoted to Lou Reed, the man who sung guest vocals on Synthetica's The Wanderlust. It was a sweet moment, but arguably, the lyrics could have been changed, even if they would've been a mouthful: “Who'd you rather be: The Beatles or The Velvet Underground?”