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I have a confession to make. I wanted to go to this show mostly see openers Wild Nothing. It’s not that I don’t like Stars. To the contrary, I loved 2005’s Set Yourself on Fire, but my interest in them has definitely waned considerably since then. 2007’s In the Bedroom After the War wasn’t bad, but the songs (except for “Take Me to the Riot”) weren’t nearly as memorable as on Set Yourself on Fire, their breakthrough album. Still, I found myself listening to it a lot less than I thought I would. Fast forward three years later and they release The Five Ghosts earlier this year. Although they brought back Tom McFall, the producer of Set Yourself on Fire, the record unfortunately sounds nothing like it. Instead, they’ve adopted a much sleeker, more electro and synth-pop based sound that frankly, I don’t like all that much. However, a few of the songs on there, despite the overall sound and production not really being to my taste, are some of their best ever. These include “Fixed” and “Wasted Daylight”, both of which they played on this evening.
The set started off with, unfortunately, several of the worst numbers from the new album. Until they played the aforementioned “Fixed”, I was almost ready to walk out! The rest of the set was marginally better, but was still a bit lackluster compared to the two times I saw them on the tour for Set Yourself on Fire. On the plus side, they did play “Wasted Daylight” and a version of “Ageless Beauty” that just featured vocalist Amy Millan and another band member on an acoustic guitar while the rest of the band, including normally omnipresent lead singer Torquil Campbell, left the stage. While I enjoyed this version and perhaps that’s how it started out, I couldn’t help feel that this was a Stars show and not an Amy Millan solo show, so why couldn’t they do a version like the sublime recorded one? Perhaps this is just wishful thinking, though. Due to both of us being tired and having to work the next morning, we left before the encore. I was hoping to hear “Reunion” (which they ended up playing during the encore) and their cover of The Smiths‘ “This Charming Man” and “Calendar Girl” (neither of these were performed), so I didn’t feel like we missed too much.
As I said earlier, openers Wild Nothing completely stole the show, though a much smaller (and very young) audience was on hand to view their set. I only recognized “Live in Dreams,” “Chinatown” and the set closer (and their first single) “Summer Holiday” from their debut full-length Gemini. Judging by the new songs that main man Jack Tatum and company performed, they’re very much in the same vein as Gemini and thus, they sounded great. Other reviews I’ve seen have criticized the live show, but though it was understated, I didn’t have a problem with it. I just hope that with their ascension on the blogs this year, their fanbase will give them a chance to develop.
Stars’ setlist can be viewed here.
