Unlike some bands, Metronomy excel in a live setting. In the last round of promoting their 2016 album Summer 08, the Totnes electronic ensemble descended upon Motion’s main room for the opening of this year’s Simple Things Festival. Support for the evening came from Tender, but in all honesty, the audience’s attention was on nothing else but Metronomy, and this radiated with the band’s stellar performance.
Starting proceedings with a triple hit from their most recent album, Metronomy punctuated their residence with ‘Back Together’, ‘Miami Logic’ and ‘Old Skool’. Swiftly moving into one of their biggest hits, ‘The Bay’, it’s obvious how enjoyable the experience is for both the band and audience – something particularly highlighted by the enigmatic performances from founder Joe Mount, and bassist Olugbenga Adelekan. ’16 Beat’ followed, before the quite frankly seminal track ‘I’m Aquarius’ set the pace for the evening.
The back-to-back performance of ‘Love Letters’ and ‘Hang Me Out To Dry’ was simply euphoric, with the band’s charisma emanating throughout the 2,000 strong crowd. Tracks like ‘Corinne’, ‘Night Owl’ and ‘Love Song for Dog’ also had an outing, before the main set was rounded off with their breakthrough single ‘The Look’, and the absolute bop that is ‘Reservoir’.
After the rapturous applause had eased off, Metronomy returned to the stage for a short but sweet encore. Performing ‘Love’s Not an Obstacle, and the chilled-out single ‘Everything Goes My Way’, the band bid their goodbyes after a truly astonishing performance that solidified their majorly innovative status.
Metronomy’s performance at Motion can only be regarded as a celebration of a band that despite their small-ish cult following, have amassed an absolutely astonishing level of respect and adoration.
Words by Jasmin Robinson
