Levitation needed a defibrillator on Friday night.
The monotonous jangle of DIIV, pin-drop quietness of Spiritualized, and the soft psych lullabies of Tame Impala lulled the pulse of fans with penchants for distortion and screaming to a crawl. The Sword’s southern fantasy metal proved too smooth and aloof to do the trick, so we waited for anyone to come around and shock us back to life.
Enter three congenial Canadians who look like they could fix your computer. That goes double for frontman Alex Edkins, spitting image of mugshot-era Bill Gates. As Levitation’s second stage closer, Metz became essential, offering an aggressive alternative to everything else going on at the festival on Friday.
The soundman wasn’t even ready.
As Toronto’s favorite noise rockers lit the fuse on their explosive, hour-long set, a muted microphone might have turned them into instrumentalists had Edkins not screamed with such intensity that his unamplified voice still cut through.
“Alright, everyone ready to dance?” he said as the vocal volume clicked back into place. “Let’s do it!”
That ushered in the blood-boiling anger of “Sad Pricks” and “Get Off,” thus instigating the day’s first mosh pit. A whirlpool of shirtless collisions didn’t subside until the final note.
Maintaining a vocation of discordant, anti-power chords, gutsy screaming, distorted bass, and hyper tempos, Metz released their sophomore LP II on Sub Pop earlier this week and took time to christen new songs including “Nervous System” and “The Swimmer.” Yet it was perfectly executed favorites like “Wasted” and “Wet Blanket,” both bathed in feedback, that brought the set to a close and demonstrated that the most important fluid onstage wasn’t the psychedelic liquid light show behind them.
It was sweat.
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This article appears in May 8 • 2015.