Stars LIVE!

[urgencytobleed]

Stars



Crofoot Ballroom, Pontiac, MI (3/29/08)

Set list, not at all in order:

The Night Starts Here
Take Me to the Riot
My Favourite Book
Midnight Coward
Personal
Window Bird
Bitches in Tokyo
In Our Bedroom After the War
Your Ex-Lover Is Dead
Set Yourself on Fire
Ageless Beauty
Reunion
What I'm Trying to Say
One More Night
Soft Revolution
Calendar Girl
Elevator Love Letter
The Woods
Going, Going, Gone

First of all, I have to get this out of the way and be shallow for a minute: Amy is so cute. Like, when I first watched videos of their live performances and interviews and the like, I thought that she was really pretty and photographs didn't do her justice at all. But the videos don't do her justice either, she is even prettier in person and she's tinier than I thought she would be, too. Also, she was wearing a gold sequined top and matching pumps - adorable.

Anyway, I've been a huge Stars fan since early last fall or sometime around there, and I was really pissed at the time because I had missed them live by only a couple of months. So, I've been waiting impatiently for them to tour here again and when I found out about this date, I very nearly had a heart attack due to how excited I was. After I composed myself, I proceeded to buy tickets as quickly as possible and then sit through the months until the show.

I was pretty happy with the songs they played. They did all but two or three of my favorites from their last two albums and I knew that they wouldn't play much from Nightsongs or Heart, so I didn't have any high expectations there to be let down. I was ecstatic when I recognized "Going, Going, Gone" because that is probably my favorite from Nightsongs (it's either that one or "Tonight", they're pretty close) and I was dying to hear it live after seeing the gorgeous performance on the DVD that accompanied In Our Bedroom After the War. I really like the arrangement of it they have right now and I like how Amy and Torquil split the verses. Amy's voice was flawless; the "All I see..." part gave me chills, it was so beautiful.

Also of note, I really enjoyed the more upbeat songs like "Take Me to the Riot", "Bitches in Tokyo", and "Soft Revolution" - they were extremely energetic and intense. "Personal" was also gorgeous; Amy seemed to get really emotional at the end and the whole performance was really haunting. I think the entire place was completely silent during it. "Your Ex-Lover Is Dead" was obviously amazing as well. They had the audience sing the entire "Live through this..." part which sounded cool. And of course "In Our Bedroom After the War", which closed the main set and was every bit as epic as it is on the album. Torq's voice sounded awesome. Speaking of his voice, I was kind of put off by how it sounded live on some of the performances I've watched videos of (such as the chorus of "Elevator Love Letter"), but it sounded a lot better in person. He can definitely hold those super long notes well and when he puts more force into his voice, it just sounds so emotional and soaring.

I think my favorite part of the whole set was the encore. It started with "My Favourite Book" and then "What I'm Trying to Say", which I was beginning to think they wouldn't play. That song is so energetic; it's definitely meant to be performed live. "Calendar Girl" was also very good. It got quite intense by the end, culminating with Torquil going a bit crazy and mouthing "I'm alive" over and over again which was, of course, awesome. The last song was "The Woods" which is not one of my favorites so I was surprised by how much I liked it. It is extremely pretty and ethereal live and was a really nice way to end the night.

All in all, it was definitely one of the best shows I've been to. Amy and Torq have amazing stage presence and their voices sound just as fantastic live as on record. Also, the stage was decorated really beautifully with a bunch of flowers, which they threw out to the audience throughout the set. At one point, I believe it was during the slower end part of "Set Yourself on Fire", Pat McGee was using two roses as drumsticks, which I thought was pretty clever and cute. Torq kept mentioning how stunned he was that there were so many people there and talked about how they used to play in a really tiny place in Detroit where their biggest audience was fourteen people or something close to that.

I don't have any complaints, only that if I were to completely have my way, I would've liked a few more songs from Heart and maybe one more from Nightsongs (I'm not as big a fan of that album, so it's not much of an issue). Also, I really wish I would've come to my senses and liked them a couple years earlier so that I could see them tour for Set Yourself on Fire, because the violin in those songs is one of my favorite aspects of them and it was missed. The current arrangements are still completely lovely and adequate, but I couldn't help noticing the obvious absence of strings in songs like "Soft Revolution" and "One More Night". But other than me being picky, the show was amazingly awesome and now I can finally say that I've seen them live, which is one less band on my wish list to get through.
I realized when I was trying to figure out which songs to upload that I've already posted almost every single one they played on here. What? You think I'm a bit too obsessed? Blasphemy! I did manage to find two that I haven't shared. Also, I enjoyed one of the opening bands - Pash - a lot and bought their album, so here are a couple songs. It's nothing too special; just girl-fronted rock, slightly Rainer Maria-esque. But it's good. And Merideth has an extremely powerful voice for being such a small person.

• Stars - The Woods
• Stars - My Favourite Book
• Pash - ABCD
• Pash - The Battle Ended There

Next on the concert schedule: I will hopefully be seeing Rilo Kiley for the second time at the end of May. I haven't gotten the tickets yet and I'm praying nothing comes up that conflicts with it. Ever since Under the Blacklight, I've had the feeling that they're on the verge of breaking up at any point, so I'm not taking my chances. I need to see them again, definitely.

Next on the schedule, blog-wise: I am attempting to finish two reviews - She & Him and Lydia - by the end of this week. I was going to write only a paragraph or so and squeeze them into the same post, but I realized they're so good that they deserve better than that. They probably still won't be as long as my reviews usually are, but they'll be substantial enough. So, look out for those soon.