Kevin Bronson on December 17th, 2017

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Emily Haines turned her inner monologue into a compelling piece of musical theater on Tuesday night at the Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever.

Touring with her band the Soft Skeleton in support of her second solo album (and first in more than 10 years) “Choir of the Mind,” the Metric frontwoman started the concert singing in bed, as if asleep, doing the first four songs solo. She then woke up and brushed her teeth while an actual “choir of her mind” played overhead over the P.A. Between songs, an inner monologue played until she remembered she was supposed to be on tour.

Five songs in, her backing band joined her for four consecutive songs off her 2006 album “Knives Don’t Have Your Back.” Rotating between material from that album to “Choir,” Haines also did one segment where she read from a book to the crowd while the song played overhead. For the encore, she returned wearing a hoodie and performed “Strangle All Romance” a cappella.

Setlist: Planets, Wounded, Crowd Surf Off a Cliff, Nihilist Abyss, Our Hell, Detective Daughter, Mostly Waving, The Maid Needs a Maid, Statuette, Minefield of Memory, Sprig, Legend of the Wild Horse, Doctor Blind, Reading in Bed, Winning, Fatal Gift. Encore: Strangle All Romance, Choir of the Mind.

Photos by Annie Lesser