With a band name likeBatpiss, you get an idea of what to expect. Relentless in a tidal wave of heavy basslines and inaudible lyrics, the Melbourne three-piece made theSex And The Citytrivia night happening in the front room seem a distant planet away.
Switching between intricate melodies and power chords, the volume seemed to be getting louder during TV Colours’ set. As the second act of the night (handpicked by Metz themselves), they levelled the stage completely in preparation for Metz’s maiden voyage to Australia.
The Canadian three-piece stocked up on beer and drumsticks for their first Sydney performance, and opened with the audio assault of ‘Negative Space’. It was three songs into their set before I recovered to realise what had just happened.
As the audience bopped along politely, lead singer Alex Edkins advised that if you felt like dancing, now was the time to do it. Once the opening chords of ‘Get Off’ rang out, it was as if the crowd had finally been given permission to lose its shit. Full glasses of beer were thrown in the air as a swarming moshpit of black-shirted, amped-up aggression formed on the dancefloor. “That’s more like it,” Edkins declared.
Dedicated to the drinkers in the audience (which was apparently everyone), ‘Wasted’ continued the charge of wild arm-flinging chaos that Metz commanded. Later, just as the last chord of ‘Sad Pricks’ distorted into silence, so did the electricity. There was a slight tone of victory when bassist Chris Slorach announced that they had “lost the whole fucking stage”.
Once the power returned, the title of new track ‘Can’t Understand’ was, fittingly, the only phrase I could make out over the wall of distortion. It’s a small miracle how well the orchestrated chaos of Metz was captured on their self-titled album. And while they completed their destructive set with ‘Wet Blanket’, the crowd went out all guns blazing. The stage was literally torn apart as a stage crasher was sent back into the crowd, tearing down a light in the proceedings. No better way to finish.
BY TANYDD JAQUET
