October 24, 2007

Stars at Higher Ground
A cinematic stage show dazzles

Patrick Smith l contributing writer
psmith@smcvt.edu

Last Wednesday at Higher Ground, Stars managed to do nothing to make me believe in love, but did everything to make it beautiful and important anyway. It was the first night of its tour and during the course of the hour-and-a-half set put on as cinematic a show as they could.

Co-lead singer Amy Millan brought out a traditional black dress and her band mates all put in the effort to evoke a black-and-white movie scene, an old and smoky lounge (except for second guitarist Evan Cranley, who spent the entire show looking comfortably out of place in flannel and jeans). Completing the cinematic experience was a bigger and more dramatic use of lights than usually put on at Higher Ground, with a constant flow of smoke.

Stars opened the set with an early track off of their latest release - “Take Me to the Riot” from In Our Bedroom After the War. As one of the catchiest songs on the record, it serves to instantly go for what is one of the band’s foremost talents, the vocals of co-leads Torquil Cambell and Millan. Both have incredibly strong voices and the ability to hit and hold any note, with Campbell often seemingly on the verge of passing out. He played the emotion, the sincerity of it, the drama. Heartfelt and putting on his acting chops, moving around the whole stage playing to every part of the crowd and to Millan herself, begging for love when lyrics call for it, as they often do in Stars songs. When Millan lets herself go soft and whimper, she has the ability to buckle and wobble men’s knees. And when she makes intimate eye contact with an audience member in the front row, it’s easy to imagine the man being in love forever.

On the new song, “Personal,” each vocalist takes on the role of a personal ad, seeking love of course. When each sang, they were the only member of the band flushed in light. It was one of the most delicate use of lights during the show. This was a far cry from the strange jacket covered in lights for “The Ghost of Genova Heights,” which came off as a strange reminder of David Hasselhoff on the Berlin Wall, with the music bringing about the even stranger touch of Styx meeting funk.          

Backing up the two singers was a band that showed the advancements they have made over the years. They refused to stick to a single album, playing songs off of all four of Stars’ albums, much to the pleasure of the crowd. Their development from an electronic pop focus to a bigger rock sound on the albums was brought to their live shows in the form a more complex sound, balancing all their skills. It was a bigger sound, louder guitars, bass and drums, but not straying away from the benefits of flute, trumpet, and synthesizers. Their biggest stylistic effort came in when they experimented for the first time with a cover of electronic band Junior Boys’ cover of their own song “Sleep Tonight.” 

For Stars, being personal and intimate is one of their top goals. The crowd was enthusiastic and adoring throughout, reaching to catch flowers whenever a band member had a bunch to throw. For its part, the band enjoyed it just as much, if not more. Relaxed, sharing smiles, playful exchanges, and Torquil’s comedic banter and rants throughout the whole night made the fun they were having immediately felt by the crowd.

On its albums, Stars mixes themes in an unrelenting, unchanging way. Politics is personal, art is personal, and politics are art. In Our Bedroom After the War’s title track is an expression of love and hope existing when the war ends. When introducing it, Torquil held onto his desire that the bedroom after the war would be where we “see each other soon.”

At Higher Ground, their mixing of love, war and art became tighter and more beautiful. In between two songs, Amy tried to tell the rest of the audience about friends she had made up close, only to have Torquil launch into a political rant of encouragement. It was forgiven because with Stars, it could never be out of place. For them, the only way to hold onto life in the face of war is to make life beautiful, full of love and art. Stars’ final statement came with Torquil thanking the crowd as personally as he could and reminding them that “It’s your movie, we’re just here to make a beautiful soundtrack.” With that, the audience went off into the night, waiting to discover if the beautiful soundtrack would be enough for the life.