Review + Photos: Lilith Fair St. Louis, Featuring Mary J. Blige, Court Yard Hounds, Metric, Emmylou Harris, Sarah McLachlan, Friday, July 16

By Annie Zaleski Sat., Jul. 17 2010 at 2:04 PM

Categories: Last Night, Show Reviews, Snapshots

Continued from page 2

Jon Gitchoff

Metric live at Lilith Fair, July 16, 2010

The middle three songs, "Help, I'm Alive," "Gold Guns Girls" and "Gimme Sympathy," hailed from Fantasies. Like the opening tune, this triptych stretched out - echoing vocals, yawning jags of blurting guitars, shuddering bass. Haines was the focal point of the performance - whether she resembled a zombie supermodel while singing the "heart beating like a hammer" lyric of "Alive" or moving like a knock-kneed robot at the mic. The set-closing "Dead Disco" - like Duran Duran on a crime-spree - devolved into scribbling synth effects and abstract comet-trails of noise. In other words, the band deserved the standing ovation it received.

At one point, Haines mentioned the band's Canadian heritage and gave a heartfelt thanks to another Canuck, headliner and tour founder Sarah McLachlan. (Incidentally, Metric also added a snippet of Neil Young's "Hey, Hey, My My (Into the Black)" before "Gimme Sympathy.") In fact, nearly every artist on stage praised McLachlan for reactivating Lilith Fair and for her personal generosity. And so unsurprisingly, a matriarchal air permeated her night-closing set, which began with her on the piano playing a soft-glow version of "Angel." (As a nice bonus, Harris joined in on background vocals.)

She picked up an acoustic guitar for "Building a Mystery," a tune that also functioned as an introduction to her stellar band, like expert session drummer Matt Chamberlain. New songs were hit or miss - the bouncing piano chords on new song "Loving You is Easy," while catchy, were a dead-ringer for Sara Bareilles' "Love Song," and the midtempo, soul-driven "Forgiveness" dissipated into the ether. Her voice remains clear and velvet-goth-lined - "Adia" and "I Will Remember You" pierced the humid air -- and her music is beautiful and comforting: a glass of warm milk, a Monet painting, a wool blanket. But because her performance came directly after Blige's set, the mellow music felt like somewhat of a let-down.