Stars have allowed the unique opportunity of reviewing their show at the Starlight in Waterloo May 6th, while simultaneously reviewing their as-yet unreleased new album The Five Ghosts.
The beloved pop stars, Stars, took to the stage - Chris facing the band on keys, Pat decked out in his signature white shades (and two tufts of hair on an otherwise shaved head), Evan in his fedora, Amy and her large, bright guitar and Torq sporting a white hoodie. A floral stage persists for this tour, as it began with the last album's tour, however the roses have become white flowers (and are not nearly as plentiful). The opening track, Dead Hearts, was the favourite new song played at their Olympic gig, and was vying for that title once again, being an Amy-led duet with an instantly nostalgic chorus of "They were kids that I once knew." In fact the first handful of tracks featured Amy prominently singing, and playing her white guitar too. The album was shaping up to be a return to form, by that I mean Nightsongs/pre-Heart form. Short poppy songs over many synths that saw Cranley manning the keys much more often than slapping the bass. This opening section of the album came to a close with the new single Fixed before a shift in style with a song introduced by Torq as being about celebrity. The chorus was weird, confusing even, with not only its content and title We Don't Want Your Body, but also the fact that it sounded SO pop - in the dirty, top-40 sense of the word.
There was a slight lull in the middle, with a rather boring (live anyway) Amy-only vocals song Never Been Good with Change that seemed to drag on. This tune was followed up by The Passenger, an "oo oo ooo" refrain overtop of laser beam noises that also missed the mark as far as I was concerned.
Yet the show was resurrected by a poignant track, Torq's Last Song Ever Written. Despite the name being perfectly suited for a closing song, there was still one more plus the finale; Winter Bones a duet that finally saw Cranley leave the keys again and brought back the romantic pop feel that worked so well on their Set Yourself on Fire masterpiece.
During the intermission I reflected on the album - a more poppy and synthesized affair than we've heard from Stars in some time. A departure from the strong, album-focused, guitar songs (relatively) heard on the previous In Our Bedroom After the War. The obviously biased crowd seemed to enjoy it well enough, though my initial impression is that it will produce a handful of favourite songs rather than album-of-the-year accolades upon repeated listens.
In fact the second set, chosen by the fans via online voting, reflected much love for the more lush, romantic side, since none of the six songs played really fit the prominent style of this newest release. Between "the hits chosen by you" as Torq called them, he rambled on as he is known to do. (It could be that I was just naive when I first began going to Stars shows, but his banter used to sound poetic and profound.) However his voice is still there, and the excellent, enduring ballads of yesteryear still pack the emotion in a live setting. We were treated to a string of favourites from the previous three LPs - Your Ex-Lover is Dead, Take Me to the Riot, Elevator Love Letter, Heart, Ageless Beauty, and One More Night. It wasn't until the very last song that they hit on any of the three I voted for, giving me Calendar Girl but not Personal or their This Charming Man cover.
To satisfy that tiny leftover feeling, Torq and Chris returned to the stage and played the only Nightsongs cut of the night Tonight which needed two takes but was wonderfully laid over the sole piano and wrapped up this lovely exhibition of Stars music, new and old.
Friday, May 07, 2010
Stars Unveil Five Ghosts at the Starlight, Waterloo
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Sense of Class
Classified's crew rolled into apparently hip-hop starved Waterloo last night, selling out the show and forcing me to fortunately grab an extra ticket on the street. Being their first time ever in the K-dub there was a real sense of excitement within the Starlight.
As Class is a champion of the Canadian hip-hop scene..., it was fitting that he invited the local duo of Justis and Mantis to open the show (along with their DJ Tangiers). Though they have noticeably improved since the last time I caught them (opening for Shad in the same space) their set was still noticeably amateur, and Mantis (who I preferred) didn't have enough mic-time for my liking.
From this point on it was the gang of Nova Scotian artists, and with them did we ever get scoshed! In fact, artists all the following artists will be rated on their level of intoxication.
Spec K was up first and did a decent job of opening the show (after an intro from DJ I.V.). After the openers he seemed much more legit, and receives intoxicating mention by doing a single about weed.
After a short throwback set by DJ I.V., a guitar-wielding artist - Chad Hatcher - took to the stage for some chilled out tunes that seem to go hand-in-hand with the mary-jane. So he gets props for catering to those that were already baked. Even for me (who was not) his singing, rather than rapping, was a welcome change, and it was interesting to hear his lisp practically disappear while singing.
Mic Boyd, Class' brother, was up next and in a similar vein to his bro he spit a few raps - keeping it short citing a ragged throat due to touring and toking. Yet that didn't stop him from being awarded an actual joint in my review, considering he smoked one right there on stage.
The next performer seemed to prefer beer as his intoxicant - and I'll hand him all three beers that he chugged onstage as a rating. J-Bru brought it from the beginning with single Help, I Been Robbed before a slight slow-down as he appeased many in the crowd who had requested his song Rain about his deceased best friend.. After that it was the aforementioned beer chugging and more hard hitting songs.
Finally the time had come for Class to hit the stage. After a fair amount of hype from DJ I.V. and J-Bru the man that everyone had come to see, Luke Boyd, finally emerged. With the entire crew backing him, plus his other younger brother on guitar, and a guy on drums, Classified gave the Waterloo crowd the show they'd been craving. There was a solid mix of tunes from his extensive back catalog such as High School Behaviour, hit Hard to Be Hip Hop, as well as tracks from his latest release Self Explanatory including Get Out the Way, and the introductory tune (though not played first) Up All Night. The set was loose, and saw every rapper step up to the mic, notably Chad Hatcher for the first song he ever collaborated with Class on. To add another dimension to the set Class showed how he actually makes his own beats by making a live re-enactment of his instructional tune Beatin It while actually setting up the beat. Keeping with the rating system, this set had everyone off their head - having lit up countless joints on stage which prompted the crowd to follow suit, I think even I was high from the hotbox, though it may have just been from the performance. To top it all off they rocked through an abbreviated version of popular The Maritimes and shut the whole thing down with the anthem-sampling Oh...Canada which brought the whole place down. Makes you wonder when Class, or any other rappers/hip-hop artists, will next return to the nickel-one-nine to satiate our thirst for it. This show was great and should tide over for a short time - but hopefully we showed Class as good a time as he showed us, to convince him to return asap.
