Stars
If you still haven’t heard, the air is buzzing with news of Stars’ impending release entitled The Five Ghosts which is set to drop in the wake of a series of North American concerts designed to showcase the album to lucky fans who are quick on their feet when it comes to grabbing tickets. Despite being one of the unfortunates who missed out on Stars’ Toronto date at the Mod Club (a show you can read about elsewhere, namely here), I had the pleasure of enjoying the show closer to home and in a venue that I love. My favourite part of Uptown Waterloo, Starlight is a cosy, yet classy venue with good vibes, good friends, and excellent taste in music. The venue’s only potential downfall, its lack of an elevated stage, was addressed by vocalist Torquil Campbell as he apologized that Stars’ only tall band member (Pat McGee) was sitting down playing drums. Both Campbell and singer/guitarist Amy Millan made use of the speakers throughout the evening as stools to remedy this so-called height deficiency, teetering a bit precariously to catch a glimpse of those further back in the audience.
Opening delicately with the fluttering keys and vocals of new track ‘Dead Hearts’, Stars set the stage for their 3rd live performance of The Five Ghosts, an album that certainly lives up to the hype that precedes it. Presenting a version of the Stars flavour resembling a mixture of their latest EP Sad Robots and 2003 release Heart, the new album is full of shimmering synths and moments of devastating beauty reminiscent of Robots—think, the final lines of ‘Going Going Gone (Live)’— that are in turn infused with a dizzying passion that harkens back to the soaring melodies of Heart. Throw some addictive 80’s pop hooks into the mix and you have a performance that is, true to Stars formula, lively and pensive, exuberant and melancholy. Favourites included the dancy power pop and tongue-and-cheek lyrics of ‘We Don’t Want Your Body’, and the heart-achingly beautiful vocals of Amy Millan on ‘Never Been Good With Changes’ (start listening to it and you won’t be able to stop). The first single from the album, ‘Fixed’ (released April 20th) proved as sweetly brain-bursting as the recording, rewarding listeners with something slightly more familiar amongst the new tunes.
A brief break was announced by the band before beginning the second set of the evening—if you haven’t been following, this set was developed democratically for each show through an online create-your-own-encore poll. Although an excellent idea in theory, the polls revealed that the majority of fans voted for “the hits” (I’m talking about ‘Your Ex-Lover is Dead’, ‘Calendar Girl’, ‘Ageless Beauty’ etc.) which, because of their blockbuster status would arguably have found their way into the setlist regardless, especially given the advent of the an entire second set for each show. So, although I always enjoy the bombastic horns and dark corners of ‘One More Night’, it was a shame to lose the opportunity to hear some older/seldom played tracks—’Toxic Holiday’, ‘Theme From the Stars’, and even ‘Division’—performed live. Having said this, we were treated to a lovely rendition of ‘Tonight’ from the band’s 2001 release Nightsongs, featuring Campbell on vocals and Chris Seligman on keys as a final encore.
If you happen to have tickets for this tour in your hands (or pockets or wallet or pasted to your mirror) you should be pretty pleased with yourself; you’re in for a very special show. In the meantime, be sure to check out more Stars news and “making of” videos for the new album at the band’s website: youarestars.com
