I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: July 28, 2026] Stars

When this tour (dubbed All the Feelings) was announced, I knew I was going immediately.  Stars, Broken Social Scene and Metric?  Three great Canadian bands who have all played with each other?  It sounded wonderful.

Stars is a fantastic band and it took me far too long to see them live.  But now that I have, I’ve seen them every two years since that first time.  I was a little bummed that they weren’t the middle band for this show, but, as it turned out, they spent a lot of time on stage with Broken Social Scene, so it was no big deal.

The actual big deal, though, was that the show started at 7 instead of 8.  I probably could have gone home after work and been home for a second and then headed down to Philly, but I decided to go directly from work (which was a very smart idea).  I arrived way too early so I went to Federal Donuts to get a chicken sandwich only to find out that this location’s grill was off.  I also found out that Federal Donuts has closed a lot of their locations (No!).  So I’m not sure if this location (on 7th) no loner serves chicken (is the grill closed permanently?).  Devastating.

So, with no dinner, but a six pack of donuts, I headed over to The Met, got to my secret free parking spot, and listened to my audio book.  But there was threat of thunderstorms.  I didn’t want to get into the venue too early, but I also didn’t want to get soaked, so I headed in around 6:15.  Merch was okay, but I didn’t get anything.  I moseyed down to the pit and happily stood behind the front row of people (a nice short woman in front of me).  This family was very nice and had seen BSS many times.

Right on time, Stars came out and, as usual, Torq was his funny engaging and charismatic self.  Amy Millan looked wonderful and seemed to be having a great time as well.  And their onstage rapport is always amazing together.  Torq talked about how great it was to be able to do something with your best friend.

The rest of the band has remained the same for 20+ years.  Last tour I learned that bassist Evan Cranley and guitarist Chris Seligman are the main composers of Stars’ music while Torq Campbell and Amy Millan write lyrics.  Drummer Pat McGee and lead guitarist Chris McCarron keep everything going.  And Torq played melodica a bunch.

I knew this set was about 40 minutes, so I assumed it would be a mini greatest hits set and it was, kind of.  I don’t honestly know what their greatest hits would be–although I do know some songs that are quite popular.

They opened with “Hold On,” a song that features a gorgeous melody line from Amy and the crowd-pumping verse

Take the weakest thing in you
And then beat the bastards with it [for the final verse, Torq changed it to Nazis]
And always hold on when you get love
So you can let go when you give it

Since I was basically second from the stage I had no idea how much the crowd was into it. I felt like they were singing to those of us right there, but they both looked up into the crowd and seemed to get responses.

They played a song from their most recent (2022) album.  The video screens behind them showed images from whichever albums they were playing.   They followed this up with two real bangers: Elevator Love Letter and my favorite song by them: Take Me to the Riot.   What an amazing two-fer there and what could you possibly do to follow that?

Change the mood completely, with the very very sad Dead Hearts.  Up next was an older song that I hadn’t seen them play yet, Look Up.

Then it was back to more bangers with the super catchy Ageless Beauty.  For Trap Door, Torq came to the front of the stage–he is very interactive–and then pretended to fall into a trap door, singing the rest of the song from the floor of the stage.

At some point, Amy said that when she transferred into Grade 11, she was lost, looking for the music room when she ran into Emily Haines.  Crazy.

Stars ended with the perfect Your Ex-Lover is Dead.  It features the sing-along part “Live through this and you won’t look back.”  I assume that most people who know of these bands know Stars, but I’m genuinely not sure.  When we sang along to those lines–four times–it felt like the whole room was singing along.  I hope they were.

After the set, the nice family was given a setlist .  I asked if I could take a photo and the young fella offered me the setlist itself since he knew I was a bigger fan.  So sweet.  I have no use for the actual pieces of paper, but I thanked him and said I hope it would get him to become a Stars fan as well.

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