A friend and I ventured down to Ferndale on Thursday to see Emily Haines in concert at the Magic Bag. Granted there are a few okay songs on her album Knives Don’t Have Your Back, for the most part I haven’t been digging her solo project. I’m much more of a Metric fan. But she ruined both for me after seeing her live.
Between songs she spoke to Detroiters in a drunken or drug-enduced stupor, periodoically taking swigs from her flask that she kept on top of her grand piano-keyboard. She told stories of her previous times in Detroit, using the word “like” every chance she could, and “totally”, as if she were some weird hybrid mix between musician, sorority chick, valley girl, hipster, and drunkard. Touring as Metric, she said that the last time she was in Detroit someone gave her guitarist a hash brownie, which he in turn forgot he had eaten, and was staring at the moon “contemplating, like, what it all meant”. Deep, Emily. Profound.
I don’t mean to turn this into a bash fest about Emily Haines, but it was so disappointing to hear her speak, after hearing how well she can write lyrics. As someone at the concert put it, “whatever childish crush I had for her has been ruined, but the music is okay”. I couldn’t agree more.
Out back after the show I asked about her line in the Metric song, “I wish we were famers//I wish we knew how to//grow sweet potatoes//and milk cows”, and she stated, “I’m totally gonna buy some land, man…”
“Oh? Where?”
“Like northern Ontario, yeah”
I’m pretty sure you can’t grow sweet potatoes in northern Ontario.
January 13, 2007 at 9:17 pm
Bummer…
January 14, 2007 at 10:45 am
I was like totally bummed that I couldn’t make the show but I am glad I didn’t go.