[ATTENDED: December 3, 2022] Stars
I have been a fan of Stars since about 2004. I have wanted to see them for a really long time. I thought I’d be able to see them last year on their Christmas Together Tour. It was at LPR in New York (which is just too much of a pain to get to) and at World Cafe Live. But it happened to be on the same night as our holiday party, so I couldn’t swing it. I never guessed they’d do another one. So this year I made sure to get tickets and schedule our party around this show.
The show came around and it was cold and I didn’t really feel like going out, but oh I wanted to see them. So I drove out to Philly.
Turned out there was a wedding in the Fillmore main floor so parking was free (yes!). I even wound up talking to some nice people around me and we had an enjoyable time waiting for the band. There was a little girl (maybe ten) who was bouncing with excitement over seeing Amy Millan. She couldn’t wait to meet her and get her autograph. I was so curious about this! How did this little girl get excited about this (relatively) obscure band from Montreal that sings about relationships and breakups? (I’ll never know).
The lights dimmed and to the tune of Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies, drummer Pat McGee (dressed in long coat and top hat) walked up to the drum kit with a lantern, just barely illuminating his way. He sat at the kit and started a beat. The rest of the band came up on stage and they started playing “Heart.” Torquil Campbell told us that they were Stars from Montreal and this was the last night of the tour. Then he started singing and he sounded just perfect. Exactly like the record–his voice hasn’t aged at all. It even had a saxophone solo from a hidden player standing behind everyone else.
Moments later Amy Millan sang her parts and her voice was absolutely angelic. She hit those beautiful high soft notes and it was just fantastic. Everything I could have hoped for!
The new album is absolutely gorgeous and Amy’s song “Pretenders” sounded wonderful. I’d never known how the band made the music before, but I recently discovered that bassist Evan Cranley and guitarist Chris Seligman are the main composers of Stars’ music. They repeat a riff or tune until something develops, and then Campbell and Amy Millan write lyrics. (This according to Wikipedia).
The band jumped back to the first album I heard from them, 2004’s Set Yourself on Fire for one of my favorite songs “Reunion.” A super catchy chorus and grooving bassline from Cranley.
Although I think of Campbell as the main singer (with Millan getting the best and most memorable parts of the songs), I didn’t realize how many songs Amy sings lead on. “Patterns” (a new one) is another gorgeous song.
Campbell is a fantastic front man. He is engaging and funny (thank you, darlings) and gets everyone to sing and clap along. We danced to “Hold On,” a song that features such a gorgeous melody line from Amy that the room kind of took off when she sang it. And if that weren’t enough, it also features the most crowd-pumping verse (and it’s only a verse, mind you)
The world won’t listen to this song
And the radio won’t play it
But if you like it sing along
Sing ’cause you don’t know how to say it
Take the weakest thing in youAnd then beat the bastards with it
And always hold on when you get loveSo you can let go when you give it
Jeez and that was only five songs in.
Before the show started, a woman handed out flowers. She told us to throw then on stage when the time was right (when was that? No idea). There were lots of flowers on stage and the band seemed to be having fun throwing them around.
Amy told us that Torquil hates change and he agreed that that was true–he loved this right here right ow and didn’t want it to end. So she wrote the lovely, “Changes” for him. They followed it with “Counting Stars on the Ceiling” the very first ever Stars song which was pretty wild. The original is kind of synth poppy, with no actual drummer. But they have modernized it quite a bit since then.
Incidentally, this was Christmas tour and at first I thought it might be all Christmas songs, which would have been fine, but kind of disappointing. Clearly, this was in no way a Christmas only song as they were playing from all over their career!
The crowd went absolutely berserk for the dance anthem “Elevator Love Letter” (the two in front of me were pogoing much higher than one might expect at a Stars show). And everyone sang along to the “take me home” line while Torquil played the melodica.
I think of the new album as kind of chill, but “Build a Fire” has some serious dance moments.
However, nothing could prepare me for “Take Me to the Riot” one of my favorite songs of all time. It was incredible to hear it live and to hear a room full of people sing it a long when usually I assume I’m the only one who knows it.
They played a song from a greatest hits collection that I didn’t know they’d released and then they played their new Christmas single, “Christmas Anyway” which is lovely. Proceeds from the song go to the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal who provide Indigenous women and their children a safe and supportive environment.
Torquil said that $1 from the tickets to these shows also went to organizations supporting women’s choice in this country. Amy wondered allowed why more men don’t get vasectomies and then mimed scissors for most of the song.
Torquil seemed to get a bit emotional before the next song talking about how his father (an actor) had performed in every city in America. So everywhere they went, his ghost was there (a fitting introduction to the very sad “Dead Hearts.” But things were brought back up with “Fixed” especially when Amy dropped her mic mid song and it fell off the stage but she quickly grabbed Torquil’s and didn’t miss a note. The song ended with a wild drum solo and Torquils’ descent into silliness.
He knelt in front of guitarist Chris McCarron as he played a wicked solo.
After a few more songs, they played the opening melody to “Your Ex-Lover is Dead” and I had forgotten how fantastic it is. And, yes, once again, we all sang along first with Torquil then with Amy.
They hadn’t played anything from No One is Lost, yet. And “Trap Door” was the dancing reminder of what a great record that is.
Then they ended the set with the Amy-sung “Ageless Beauty” although, amusingly, the whole crowd sang the first verse and Amy was pretty impressed with our singing.
After a brief encore, Any and Chris came out to sing the gorgeous “My Favourite Book” which she said was a Patreon request. Apparently there was a Patreon afterparty. The setlist read “Snowy Owl” for that song, and I don’t know “Owl” that well, so it was an amazing substitution for me
When the band came back out, they played the title track from No One is Lost, with Torquil introducing it with You better dance, Santa’s watching you. It has the darkest, yet most uplifting lyrics:
*to a bouncing dance beat*
Put your hands up ’cause everybody dies
and
Put your hands up if you know you’re gonna lose
and
Put your hands up if you ever feel afraid, yeah
with the reminder that No one is lost.
They ended the show with a Christmas song. The Pogues’ “Fairytale of New York.” A perfect duet for a great duo. I left feeling absolutely wonderful.
Torquil promised that this Christmas tour would be an annual thing with a stop in Philly, and I will definitely go again next year, and I’ll drag S. along too for some holiday cheer.
- Heart ♥
- Pretenders ∇
- Reunion ≅
- Patterns ∇
- Hold On When You Get Love and Let Go When You Give It ⇑
- Changes Ö
- Counting Stars on the Ceiling ♦
- Elevator Love Letter ♥
- Build a Fire ∇
- Take Me to the Riot ⊗
- Ship to Shore ¶
- Christmas Anyways Λ
- Dead Hearts Ö
- Fixed Ö
- Fluorescent Light ‰
- Capelton Hill ∇
- Your Ex-Lover Is Dead ≅
- Trap Door Ø
- Ageless Beauty ≅
encore - My Favourite Book ⊗ (Patreon Request was “Snowy Owl” on setlist)
- No One is Lost Ø
- Fairytale of New York (Pogues cover)
Λ single 2022
∇ From Capelton Hill 2022
¶ LaGuardia (The Best of Stars) 2019
‰ There Is No Love in Fluorescent Light 2017
Ø No One Is Lost 2014
⇑ The North 2012
Ö The Five Ghosts 2010
⊗ In Our Bedroom After the War 2007
≅ Set Yourself on Fire 2004
♥ Heart 2003
♦ Nightsongs 2001
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