NOEL GALLAGHER, GARBAGE & METRIC TEAM UP AT SUMMERSTAGE

A trio of 90’s alternative music bigwigs have teamed up for a somewhat oddly fitting trifecta with Metric, Garbage, and headliner, and ex-Oasis show-runner, Noel Gallagher and his band High Flying Birds all performing as an amazing three ring circus show at Central Park’s Summerstage on Monday night. I think all three of these acts are incredibly talented and put on astounding shows in their own right, but they clearly came from very different scenes within that wide camp of alternative nation tents that made for a rather surreal fit of oddly mixing crowds on this hot and muggy evening in the park. While Metric and Garbage clearly attracted a kind of killer feminist power following prepared for a scathing discourse of gender politics, Noel Gallagher’s fans were much more like Brit pop soccer hooligans ready for a bar fight, and yet all sides somehow got along quite beautifully in a packed park for a sold out show with lots of classic alternative sing-alongs chanted aloud with sweaty abandon.

First up was the band Metric who was actually a very late 90’s creation, and more a child of the early 2000’s scene, and who are often still thought of as an Ontario band, even though they really made their name right here in NYC. Frontwoman Emily Haines did do some early work appearing with Canadian mainstays like Broken Social Scene and Stars, but the band Metric didn’t really start until she moved to Brooklyn with guitarist James Shaw and roomed in the same complex with some of the most influential artists of the exploding Big Apple rock scene of the time like Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Liars, The Strokes, and TV on the Radio. The band started off with a very small following, as I remembered them playing to largely empty small venues in the city early on, but they slowly built a following, and by 2009 they were turning out powerhouse anthems on hot alt chart dominating albums and commanding large concert stages wherever they performed. They never seemed to get to that huge crossover success that some of their contemporaries have achieved, but I will say they remain one of the most consistently impressive bands of their generation, with each album managing to impress me more than the last, and last year’s LP Formentera even becaming my favorite album of the whole year, so I will admit I am a totally smitten fan of their powerhouse presence. Every time I see them play the whole band brings out their A game, and this set was no different, with Haines belting out some of the most alluring harmonies with the most kick-ass stage-commanding fire of just about any rock frontwoman I’ve ever seen, even dressing in a skin-tight vinyl suit that I couldn’t help think must have been torture in the muggy heat, but she somehow pulled it all off with grace and effortless charm that makes her one of the most bewitching frontwomen in the rock world. Since their set was far shorter than normal seeing as they were the opener, they got right to their hits with songs like their killer opening classic “Gold Guns Girls” and blowing through other faves like “Gimme Sympathy,” “Black Sheep,” and “Breathing Underwater” with the welcome inclusion of a super catchy and deeply emotional new song “All Comes Crashing.” The band will have a new album Formentera II out in October, so I’m sure we’ll all get more chances to see them play full powerhouse headlining sets real soon.

Metric

The early 90’s alt-music scene was set ablaze when the band Garbage burned through the music charts, and for many at the show, they were the real headliners. This band was often also incorrectly targeted in their origins, as I’ve encountered many who thought they were actually a Scottish band, even though they really started in Madison, Wisconsin. The band was a partnership of alternative scene veterans who were already collaborating, like producer and drummer Butch Vig, who had just overseen the making of the mega-huge Nevermind album by Nirvana, along with guitarists Duke Erikson and Steve Marker, all of whom were looking, and found, the perfect frontwoman in the form of the Scottish singer Shirley Manson who was in the band Angelfish at the time. They came right out of the gates guns blazing on their self-titled debut in 1995, and continued that cross-over success with Version 2.0 in 1998. The band did seem to suffer through a series of erratic breaks and false starts with continuing efforts, but other that a few vacant years in the mid-00’s, it seems like they never went excessively long without releasing some incredibly impressive new musical opus and doing some killer tour. Seeing Shirley Manson perform is like a masterclass in kick-ass commanding of a stage and hypnotic control of an audience. She came out in the poof-iest red dresses possible, and she still came off as hard as nails, while strutting around the stage like she really owned every step in her giant combat boots. She connected with the audience in a deep way that showed her rock veteran status while still exhibiting moments of child-like wonder as she gushed at the crowds with girlish smiles. They played an impressive set of hits like “#1 Crush,” ”Special,” ”Stupid Girl,” ”Push It,” ”Only Happy When It Rains,” and ”Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go!)” as well as new classics like “The Men Who Rule the World” from their impressive recent album No Gods No Masters, and they even covered Siouxsie and the Banshees with the epic banger “Cities in Dust,” as the darkly thick synthy soundscapes and spellbinding rhythms was impressive throughout. They too have a new album in the works, and I can’t wait to hear what they cook up next.

Garbage

Headlining the show was Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds who had a very different breed of 90’s alternative power, but still had the crowd going mad. Noel is, of course, one half of the turbulent brother duo known as Oasis, that started off as a barely noticed Manchester band in the early 90’s but quickly grew to dominate the music charts and became the cocky ruler of the Britpop scene that even became a direct contender to America’s mammoth grunge movement. The lead songwriter Noel and his lead singing brother Liam had a well-known and publicly contentious, and sometimes downright abusive, relationship that often spilled out to their performances, like their infamous MTV Unplugged performance at the Royal Festival Hall in which Liam pulled out after a big fight, while citing a sore throat, and yet he watched the performance from a balcony while chugging beers and and smoking cigarettes, all the while loudly heckling Noel’s singing between songs while cameras rolled. That aggressive competitiveness went further than their brotherly ribbing, as they got in many openly cruel brawls with fellow Britpop bands like Blur and The Charlatans, who they often put down as they dominated the charts. This nastiness was a peculiar dualism as their music usually had a quite peaceful and even apathetic chill to it which made for some of the coolest anthems of the whole decade, as they produced a relaxed and even occasionally whimsical sound that often harkened back to their contemporary British idols like The Beatles and The Kinks, even if they did occasionally have a darker and more cynical edge if you really delved into their lyrics. Their first couple of albums dominated the music scene of the mid 90’s, but despite their constant bickering and fighting, and albums that became steadily less popular, they kept at the game much longer than just about any of their fellow Britpop compadres, still recording and playing up until 2009, but eventually the contentious relationship got to Noel, and he very quit the band after a rather huge public blowout that still effects the brothers to this day

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds

He soon after formed his solo band Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds which features former Oasis members guitarist Gem Archer, keyboardist Mike Rowe, and drummer Chris Sharrock, as well as former Zutons bassist Russell Pritchard. It is an expansive band that produces a big and lavish sound that their songs richly deserve. They have recorded a few albums as a band over the last decade or so that have done incredibly well on the charts, and they have built a sizable following on their own right, and it is easy to see why as the first several songs of their set were songs from those newer albums had many fans singing along as merrily as when they broke into the Oasis classics in the second half of their set. I did appreciate that he dug into some of the more deep cut fan favorites like “Going Nowhere” and “Little by Little” before breaking into the epic singalong classics like “Live Forever” and “Don’t Look Back in Anger.” I also appreciated their hometown dedication, with lots of lovely callouts to Manchester, and an obvious beloved devotion to Noel’s football team Manchester City, even having a life-sized stout of the teams’s manager Pep Guardiola looming behind him as he played. Apparently, the two Oasis brothers have promised to reunite because of Pep and Man City’s recent ruling of the football world, so it will be interesting to see if those two can really put all the drama behind them for the love the music as much as the fans did at this show. I almost wanted someone to shout out they were huge Blur and Chelsea fans just to see what kind of mad brawl would occur, but instead, everyone seemed to peacefully jell and really relax to just enjoy the alternative music classics, and that’s what made the night really amazing.