+ 
Unfortunately the Opera House has a stringent policy against photography during performances, so this crude and horrendously primitive representation of the night’s activities will have to do…
As a part of the Vivid Live festivities, this year curated by Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson, Sydney was tonight treated to the very unique opportunity to see Metric frontwoman Emily Haines perform live with a string quartet. The Opera Theatre was packed out with an interesting crowd – the leggings-and-dress or shirt-and-skinny-tie wearing type that you’d expect to find at a Metric show, but also older faces that might be attracted to the classical side of things.
It did turn out to be a very surprising show indeed, appealing to both of those groups, and anyone who thought that it would simply be a show of Haines’ downbeat Soft Skeleton material was proven very, very wrong – it was, for the most part, a classical reimagining of Metric’s 2009 album Fantasies. As the quartet, composed of Australian string players, walked onstage to polite applause, they launched into a cursory interlude before Miss Haines herself walked out, decked in a gaudy, glittery jacket that only she could pull off and poising herself in a low hunch over the microphone. Beginning the evening’s proceedings with a subdued rendition of ‘Blindness’, it was incredible to hear right away how easily the strings suited Metric’s tunes – the cello was stunningly sonorous, while the violins danced gracefully above and the viola provided a peaceful mid-range. Haines herself was also somewhat subdued, choosing to censor the “fuck” in a beautiful slow version of the usually upbeat ‘Satellite Mind’ and refusing to acknowledge a very out-of-place “I love you Emily!” from an excited audience member. Haines took to the piano for ‘Gold Guns Girls’ and ‘Twilight Galaxy’, which featured a playful call-and-response line between the second violin and viola, before loosening up to talk to the audience and read an excerpt of a poem by her late father, the Canadian poet Paul Haines, accompanying it with a cover of Neil Young’s ‘Expecting to Fly’ to pay homage to her roots.
What was particularly wonderful about the show was that so many Metric songs, normally drenched with vocal reverb and deep electronic synths and beats, were completely and effectively reborn thanks to the mastery of Haines’ fellow Toronto musician Todor Kabokov, present tonight plugging away at a synthesiser to create subtle drum beats and xylophone tinkers. Haines dedicated a silky ‘Gimme Sympathy’ to him, and ‘Collect Call’ featured an intense pizzicato interlude by the strings, who Haines also named individually (reading off a slip of paper, no less). The night ended with ‘Help I’m Alive’, the strings plugging away to create the same sense of urgency heard on the recorded version but in a much more understated way, before Haines walked off stage, holding her father’s poetry book in the air as she faded into the background.
Clocking in at only 45 minutes, the length of the show left more than just a few punters in a huff – a quick Twitter search for ‘Emily Haines’ reveals some anger spouts from several very agitated attendees. For me, though, it was the perfect first time to see Emily Haines – unique, sophisticated and simply beautiful, a real performance from a real artist. This was Haines’ first string quartet performance on our shores, but we can certainly hope that it won’t be the last.
Set:
Blindness
Satellite Mind
Gold Guns Girls
Twilight Galaxy
Expecting to Fly (Neil Young cover)
Collect Call
Gimme Sympathy
Help I’m Alive
