Making their eagerly anticipated return to our shores on the back of their Mercury Prize nominated third album English Riviera, Metronomy played last night to a packed Manning Bar. First up in support were Melbourne alt pop duo Oscar + Martin.

Having been keen to see them live, I was slightly underwhelmed. Their quirky minimal pop built on odd samples, programmed drum beats and clipped guitar was enjoyable but didn't quite translate in a live setting. They have fun, interesting ideas and execute them well in recording but on stage some of their songs sounded a bit discordant with sections jammed together. A rap verse would appear from nowhere then disappear just as quickly, some synchronised drumming (I’m always a sucker for this) would arrive completely unannounced.

The vocals, sometimes impressively compelling, were unfortunately often lost in amongst the samples and keys. I like the concept but just couldn’t help but feel that they weren’t able to pull it off live. Where they didn’t try too much was when they came off best, being able to more fully develop a song by playing around with simple but catchy layers or a sick hip hop beat.

With the dancefloor and surrounding tiers now filled, Metronomy politely made their entrance to the strains of "English Riviera". Opening with the eventually raucous "We Broke Free", the four-piece were each sporting an odd oversized white badge on their chest. It wasn’t until second song “Love Underlined” that their 'purpose' was revealed as they flashed in time with various beats.

This sort of quirky, often slightly camp, theatrical detail is a fun feature of Metronomy’s live performances. In the riotous instrumental “You Could Easily Have Me”, keyboardist/multi-instrumentalist Oscar Cash mimes the melody with his spare hand in a sort of awkward interpretive dance. When the melody makes a sudden drop, Cash too drops down behind his keys whilst continuing to play, so that only his head peaks over the top at the audience. Meanwhile, the rest of the band rock out.

Live music is often as simple as this: when a band has fun on stage, the audience does too. And the audience were enjoying themselves. With a run through clear crowd favourites "Heartbreaker", "The Bay" and "The Look", the dance floor was bouncing, Cash and frontman/producer Joe Mount trading keyboard hooks. Even the slightly less dance-oriented songs off English Riviera, were really brought to life on stage. The slightly menacing “She Wants”, for instance, sounds even more sinister and possibly more violent live with boosted synth and electric guitar.

Recent additions to the band, drummer Anna Prior and bassist Gbenga Adelekan, fit in perfectly, with Prior firing away unconscientiously in the back and Adelekan threading slinky bass lines and geeing up the crowd. Ending the set on “Some Written” it’s not long before the band return to play the footloose “On Dancefloors” and the shout-along “Radio Ladio” much to the crowd’s delight.

Metronomy clearly enjoy being on stage and that makes all the difference. With a set that seamlessly ties together their varied three albums into a quirky enjoyably noisy electronic dance party it’s easy to see why.

Setlist:
We Broke Free
Love Underlined
Back on the Motorway
Holiday
She Wants
Corrine
You Could Easily Have Me
The End of You Too
Heartbreaker
The Bay
The Look
A Thing for Me
Everything Goes My Way
Some Written

Encore:
On Dancefloors
Radio Ladio