Islands-Metric / Webster Hall

Looking for Big Hassle’s Sophie in Webster Hall’s balcony–

Me: Hello, are you from Big Hassle?
Girls: No, we’re from Canada.

And so 80% of the night went. I love the Canadian invasion, by the way–Islands are joyful, AIDS Wolf fascinating, Wolf Parade tilt the room. Feist has a pretty voice. Metric are the best show(wo)men of the group, I think, and even if you took down the faux-star lighting and bursts behind them it’d be easy to see dynamics. More dynamic is that I turned my all access pass into faux pas by walking into Metric’s dressing room right as lead singer Emily Haines was changing into a white dress for the show. Embarrassing for all involved.

Islands I’ve written about a lot, and will continue to write about more, so I’ll save it. During the show I thought about how far away I was, though it was easier for me to see from the balcony, and how every Islands show was probably going to be getting further and further away from the band. Later, walking into the right dressing room, I did get a minute to talk to Nick, who still looked a little tired though a lot healthier than he did at the Knitting Factory show. Jaime too, looked happy and healthy, as did the rest of the band. I’m happy for them too, and hope all goes well for their 4/4 release, even if it does mean being balconies away.

Mark has his piece on what it was like teaching an 826 Chicago workshop up on the Printculture website today.