Metric

Mommy, look at the pretty lady! It’s easy to understand why most women rockers either dress down (no leg, no cleavage) or go sextreme (crotch-in-face), but Metric’s Emily Haines was feminine to the hilt and fairly unfazed by the few drooling commentators in her midst. Stern but casual, and a touch thespian at times, she dished her smart and streetwise vocals, and melodic keyboard parts with gusto while James Shaw and company’s lean, upbeat Britpop and "death disco” style rocked and twirled around the room and into our heads.