Metric & Friends Play Their Debut Bend Show on the “All The Feelings” Tour
Photo by Gwen Shoemaker
6.24.26 - Bend, OR
The world is a brutal place. Metric, Broken Social Scene, and Stars all say that friendship is the key to surviving it.
Stepping up to the plate first, Montreal based indie-pop group Stars set the standard for the night’s energy. Their performance was dedicated to a dear friend, Leonard, who had devastatingly passed the morning of the show. Because of that, there was a deeper layer of passion and emotion in each song, so much so that frontman Torquil Campbell took every opportunity to talk to the crowd and remind us all that community is the answer.
Broken Social Scene took the stage and immediately bounced off of the sentiments introduced by Stars. Also dedicating their set to Leonard, they emphasized the sense of friendship and community throughout their set. The band brought out several members of Stars to play the trumpets and sing along. One of the most beautiful moment’s of Broken Social Scene’s set was during the song “Sweetest Kill.” At this point in the show, the sun was beginning to set and the group took a moment to reflect on the emotional weight of the night and how the sunshine brought hope. It was an emotional and heavy performance, one that obviously sung in deep dedication.
Photo by Gwen Shoemaker
Another amazing moment came for fans of the 2009 film Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. Toward the end of Broken Social Scene’s set, the band brought out Emily Haines of Metric to sing “Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl.” While this song is well-known for its feature in the soundtrack, it also stands as a beautiful memento of many years of friendship between both bands.
Haines returned to the stage as Metric made their long-awaited debut in Bend. Opening the set with the delightful summer-esque track “Victim of Luck” from their new album Romanticize The Dive, the band reemphasized how necessary it is to find camaraderie in dark times. The crowd was dancing and swaying the whole time— I can confidently say there was not a single still body in the venue. Haines made a point to encourage the audience to “seize the opportunity” prior to playing their 2018 track “Now or Never Now.” On top of that, she gave a shoutout to the young women in the audience and announced that she was passing the torch down to the next generation. Very special moments indeed.
They had to throw it back for the OG fans! Toward the end of the show, they played their classics “Gold Guns Girls” and “Help I’m Alive” from their well-loved 2009 album Fantasize. At this point, I could hardly hear the band as everyone around me was singing along at the top of their lungs. Each band made it clear that the point of this life is finding community, and each stranger in the venue found that in each other.
To close out the show, they brought it back to the Scott Pilgrim soundtrack with “Black Sheep.” The screaming only got louder with this one! The audience energy was beyond electric and the band seemed to feed off of this, giving it back to us tenfold. Every moment of this show was perfection— you need to catch them live while you still can!
