I remember reading somewhere that smell is the most powerful sense in terms of evoking memory, but I’ve always found sound has worked better for me. One of the bands that has carved out a permanent place in my memory and on my playlist is Metric (yay Canadian!).  I really, really suck at classifying music, but I think they’re alternative/rock. I got into their music when I realized that they’d be playing a free concert at my university, so I rushed out and got all of their stuff two weeks before they were set to play and quickly fell in love with their sound. Of course, this led to a series of misadventures.

When I finally did get to see them in concert it was both a treat and a disappointment.  They were coming to Toronto from Montreal on a tour bus and we had to wait out in the cold for an hour and a half for them to get there. Then they did arrive and took their sweet time (30 mins or so?) coming on-stage with no explanation or apologies for the fans waiting in the rain. They still rocked out, but I think they could take some time out from music practice and train their PR skills a bit more.

I didn’t let their concert soil their rep in my head (their music was too good.) Metric is the Berlin transit system to me. It’s the subway and the RT and the buses for me. I was in Berlin last year and listened to Too Little Too Late while the city flew by me. My Shure earphones were pretty terribly broken at the time, so I’d have to whack the wire every five minutes or so to re-establish the sound in my left ear. The university dorm I was staying at was nearly an hour and a half away from anything in the city, so I had a lot of time to listen to music. Mostly in mono, but sometimes in stereo.   Now every time I hear that song, I think of the city of Berlin, zipping by through a haze of dirty bus window glass..

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