Metric Storms the Stage at Radio City Music Hall

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Had a great time Sunday night at Radio City Music Hall, where I was the guest of Steve Conte, a friend I’ve made through CBCRadio 3, the great Internet radio station that plays indie rock n’ roll by Canadian bands, some of the best contemporary music being played and recorded nowadays. Steve, who is a comic book artist and writer who also operates FunnyBooks, a comics shop in Lake Hiawatha, NJ, had tickets for a bill headlined by Metric, a Montreal quartet fronted by fabulous lead singer Emily Haines. They play a high energy kind of doomsday pop–big chords and heavy sounds, veering toward the apocalyptic, yet infused with plenty of tuneful hooks that keep you remembering their melodies. Haynes sings fiercely, moving, prancing, and running around the stage like a big, lithe cat.

Having been to many club shows at small venues on the Lower East Side over the past couple years, I was unprepared for how comfortable, even opulent it felt to take in a rock show at Radio City. Art Deco splendor everywhere your eye falls, both in the auditorium and out in the lobby; suited and uniformed staff serving at a nice bar, where I bought us each a pre-show Johnny Walker cocktail; and superb acoustics with great lighting effects.

The opening act was Half Moon Run, also from Montreal, and they also played a beautiful set, later making a return to the stage at the end of Metric’s 90-minute set. Before that event, we were startled to hear Emily Haines welcome to the stage one of her musical heroes, Lou Reed. He came out for two songs, standing side by side with Haines.

If you don’t know Metric at all, here’s one of their band videos, the song “Gimme Sympathy.”

Here are photos I took from the terrific mezzanine seats Steve had gotten, which gave us a great view of the wide stage and handsome auditorium. I hope to go back to Radio City for another rock show–this one was excellent in every department. Thanks, Steve, for reminding me what a great venue it is! Please click through to see more than 20 photos from Metric’s performance.

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“Life is a Carnival”*

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The Bard Graduate Center on West 86th Street is a gem of a small New York museum. On my birthday last Saturday, Kyle asked me what I wanted to do for fun. I suggested we go view Bard’s current exhibit, “Circus and the City: New York, 1793-2010.”

I’ve loved the circus for years, and have even collected artwork on it, like the print below of high-wire artists on a bike, by Dame Laura Knight. I bought it  in 1987 from my late art dealer friend Robert Henry Adams when I was editing and publishing the splendid circus novel, Suite for Calliope: A Novel of Music and the Circus, by Ellen Hunnicutt, who won the Dru Heinz Literature Prize that same year for her short fiction collection, In the Music Library. Ellen’s novel centers around a young female protagonist who’s a runaway from a bizarre custody battle in her family. Holed up in the safe harbor of the Florida winter quarters of a circus troupe, throughout the novel she’s using their calliope to compose a musical work in memory of her late mother. The novel’s theme is how we may turn our mourning and loss to the service of art and creativity. For the record, Ellen passed away in 2005. I hope some day to republish her novel.

Much as I’ve read about circus lore, I had not understood a key aspect of the historical record as documented by the exhibit: the central role that NYC played in the growth and development of the circus throughout North America. Many of the biggest promoters were headquartered in Manhattan, the continent’s entertainment capitol. Once the circus began moving from town to town via train cars, Gotham’s status as a rail hub, as well as its large, diverse population, made it the essential city for promoters and performers alike.

The 20th century was covered on the third floor of the exhibit, with great photographs by Weegee, best known for his lurid crime scene photography, here depicting circus audiences enthralled by performances. There was also a video monitor showing a film of female stunt artist Tiny Kline performing the “Slide for Life,” in which she clamped down on a kind of leather bit she’d placed in her mouth, then slid on a cable for a 1,000 feet hanging above Times Square.

Along with the exhibit, which comprises more than 200 works displayed on three floors of the museum, there will be nine public talks given beginning October 11 and stretching into 2013, ending on January 31, discussing female equestrians; performance photography; the design and typography of circus posters; P.T. Barnum and Ralph Waldo Emerson; Alexander Calder; clowning; and the circus of the future. I hope to be there for one or more of these presentations. Meantime, here is a gallery of images from the exhibit. Please click through to view art and images from the exhibit.

*Thanks to The Band, for use of the title of their song, “Life is a Carnival, written by Rick Danko, Levon Helm, and J.R.R. Robertson, from their 1971 album, “Cahoots.”

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