Face value be damned, scalpers were unloading tickets for upwards of $70 apiece moments before indie sweethearts Metric hit the stage with rock star guns blazing.

Frantic strobe lights flashed over varying shades of violet and blue-colored spotlights as Emily Haines, Metric's beautiful blonde lead singer, headbanged her way through a sold-out show at The Wiltern.

Over 2,200 people turned out to see the band play songs from their new album, Fantasies. Quite a difference from their early days in Los Angeles, were they played out at venues that topped out closer to 200.

Metric's bassist Joshua Winstead reminisced, "We got our start over at the Silver Lake Lounge. I really enjoyed that place."

Haines and the boys opened with an extended version of Twilight and the crowd erupted into screams at hearing the first notes of Help I'm Alive, singing along with each build up to the chorus. The bass-heavy show shook the old theatre as Haines' danced her way through a 13-song set in a sexy gold sequined mini dress, simultaneously shaking her tambourine and seducing the crowd with flawless vocals.

Later that night at the Wiltern's upstairs bar, Joules Scott-Key, drummer for Metric, talked excitedly about his wife having a baby next month.

"We're due in July!"

Haines, a Diane Kruger look-alike, had changed out of her party dress into white jeans and a tee-shirt and swigged champagne straight out of the bottle, presumably in giddy celebration over the night's decidedly huge success of a show.

In the flurry of aftershow excitement, flashbulbs, fan pics and all, Winstead somehow managed to get the whole band together long enough for me to snap a Polaroid.

I ran into Winstead the next night at the Roosevelt Hotel's Tuesday night pool party at Tropicana Bar and talked with him a bit about the music.

It feels so rare to find songs that are both lyrically and musically excellent. You usually get one or the other. Either the lyrics are badass and the music feels like a so-so afterthought, or you have an amazing sequence of sounds and then lyrics that can't live up to what the music elicits. Your work is in that category of being both lyrically and musically excellent. So I'm curious about what exactly your writing process looks like.

In most cases Emily will bring a song to us with lyrics and a basic chord structure and we then turn it into a full fledged Metric tune. Other times Jimmy (James Shaw, Metric's guitarist) or I write the music and then Emily puts lyrics and vocals to it.

An internet leak was ultimately responsible for Help I'm Alive gaining momentum and hitting radio stations all over the world. It was your first #1 hit. Were you, personally, angry when you first discovered the leak, or was it more of a c'est la vie type thing?

We weren't upset when it got leaked. You know, it's just one of those things that's almost unavoidable these days. The only time it's a total bummer is when something gets out that's not completed yet.

You guys opened two shows for The Rolling Stones at Madison Square Garden a few years back. Did you get any face time with the guys? What's your best Mick Jagger story?

Yeah, we got to have a quick meet and photo with them. They were extremely friendly and genuine. I didn't really speak to Mick, but I did get a chance to talk with Ron Wood and for some reason he took a shine to me. He was really excited to talk about my bass playing. The only problem was that I really couldn't understand what he was saying. So I ended up inadvertently lying to him. At one point he was asking me a question and I didn't know what he said, so I just said yes and then later on, after I figured out what he really said, I realized the answer was no. So, uh, yeah, sorry Ronny! No disrespect, you rule!

Gimme Sympathy, especially the opening verse, takes me back to various roadtrips I've taken. It reminds me of the way it feels to be madly in love, riding shotgun, flying down the highway with the wind in my ears. Am I anywhere close to what that song is actually about?

That is amazing because that is exactly the way Emily describes how she wants the listener to feel.

THE DETAILS: Metric
http://ilovemetric.com

June 08, 2009 show at The Wiltern
Los Angeles, CA

Story by Aubrey Nicole.
Photos by Mike Allen.
Polaroid by Aubrey Nicole.