Metropolitan Farms – Red Room – Nov. 19, 2009
This middle aged power pop trio can be summed up with two words…”pleasant surprise”.
The Red Room tells people “Don’t Fear the 82nd” but honestly the 82nd does seem like a LONG way from home…physically and figuratively. It’s a little bit of a different world…with different kinds of businesses and folks…which got me thinking…what REALLY goes on at a live lingerie show? I doubt I’ll ever find out first hand, but I’m curious. So, if anyone has experience feel free to let me know.
Now, back to Metropolitan Farms. I arrived as they were beginning to set up and it was a real test of expectations based on appearance. Three mid 40 30′s-ish guys setting up at 11pm on a Thursday at The Red Room conjours assumptions of mid-life crisis denying rock cover bands that should never leave the 2 car garage… Don’t get me wrong, I DO think those types should get together on Sundays and enjoy playing music, but sometimes they need to realize the “big-time” does NOT await them at the end of the concert rainbow… just to be clear, that was the kind of the misguided assumption I was setting up BEFORE they played.
Once they started playing, my dumb preconceived notions melted away quickly. Metropolitan Farms live play catchy power pop tunes with decent harmony vocals. There is an upbeat, sunny quality to the sound of the tunes even if they are about “flesh eating bacteria and double negatives”. Watching these guys made me smile which is a GOOD thing.
The intriguing part of this band is the fact that, in a lot of cases, three older guys singing sunny pop songs with high harmonies would come off as horribly wrong…like they never wanted to leave the glory years of their 20′s…or they enjoy stalking young girls*…that would be disturbing. But for Metropolitan Farms there is a genuine comfort and relaxed nature coming from the band, especially the singer/guitarist, that I just enjoyed. The drummer’s playing was really spot on as well…he makes it look easy. These guys are who they are and they’re not trying to be anything that they are not. It’s refreshing.
This show was definitely a pleasant surprise and I’d be happy to see them in the future!
I had a couple minor complaints about the mix at this show. With the harmonies being a focal point, I would have liked to see the vocals brought up a bit. Also, the drums and bass were a notch higher than guitar…I’d have liked a little more meat and volume from the guitar…but I’m nit-picky on sound as it is.
http://www.myspace.com/metropolitanfarms
*For the record “young girls” is always relative…in this case I mean early 20′s…
LW McGrath said,
November 24, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Thank you for the kind words. It’s nice to know someone is paying attention once in a while. For the record, my bandmates are well under 40. We will be appearing at Pepper’s Taqueria in Vancouver on the 12th of next month, if you are serious about seeing us again. We will have a recording done soon, which I’m sure we would like you to have, as well, if you are interested.
LW McGrath, bass and “decent harmonies” for Metropolitan Farms