there's nothing after that but you

Stars played their farewell show last night.

or what i force everyone to call the "hiatus" show. because i cannot bare the thought of never seeing them live again.

they played the metropolis venue with opening band & dear friends young galaxy.
young galaxy is something worth looking into, by the way.
they had this sense of playfulness and the guitarist reminded me far too much of torq from stars; almost knocking down all of the equipment and throwing his fender into the audience (i caught an arcade fire tambourine. it's only fair a catch i guitar, too.).
at the end of the set, he walked off to find a simpsons itchy stuffed animal and place it on stage as an entertainment sacrifice.
did i mention i love concerts?
the preggers leading lady (taking after of amy of stars, naturally.) being the perfect combination of class and spunk.

once the band fluttered off, time for stars.
the cold kept many away until the exploded on stage as they always do.

a bit of back up history and knowledge for the uneducated:

MY BIO: Stars started it all for me. I remember being in my first year of highschool, being really awkward and uncomfortable with what I was and flickering between Ytv and Fox44 because I didn't know which one I was more entitled to watch. From the corner of the hall, my older teenaged sister was typing essays about topics I knew nothing about and playing these jams to help her through it. As the months passed, I learned these songs by heart. Because they captivated my heart. Eventually, did some digging and found out about Stars and fell in love. I then discovered Arts & Crafts (Stars's original label) and this snowballed into discovering other bands of the indie community such as Death Cab For Cutie which created the music-soaked soul I am today.

I remember thinking how this must be the only actual band in the world. I would wonder how they weren't bigger, how they seemed still unknown, how they came from the same geographical and spiritual location as lil' ol' me.

As time passed, their songs became more and more relivant to the ways my life had decided to sway. I don't even see them as a band anymore. They are this time capsule of a part of my life with every album that they produce. Set Yourself On Fire being the exception: it's the album of my existence.

So, to put it very lightly, Stars started it all.

WORLD BIO: As explained in many interviews, Stars is taking hiatus due to Amy's pregnancy. Though they say they plan on continuing to record and eventually come back into the game, many are saying that they won't. With songs on their latest album entitled The Last Song Ever Written, one can't help but think they're over.

Now, highlights of the concert (other than the entire thing itself)

Band members: Phenomenal as they always are. Amy looks like she is about to burst but is looking great. Torquin needs to pull up his pants. Evan Cranley seriously has to lose his black touch hairstyle, though. It's a bit much. But I still love you, Cranley.

Set up: The ghosts that were posted everywhere encompassed the whole air from their new album. Loved the massive amount of instruments everywhere and the continuous roses in all of their shows is a detail I can't help but love.

Merch: I don't usually discuss this, BUT THEY HAD SO MUCH. From shirts (8 of them) to pins, vinyls, dvds, PILLOWCASES. If I brought enough cash, I was willing to miss out on rent and a house for a month.

Effects: The lighting and cues is something I always love about their shows. They make those epic instrumental moments as stupendous as I've daydreamed about. An addition of bubble machines and confetti guns this time. Nice touch, Stars.

The Playlist: THEY PLAYED ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING. A massive TWENTY FOUR SONGS including the encore.

Songs from every single album, almost as though they were digging up the skeletons they couldn't help but look at again. The songs that meant something more - a badge of honour for putting something great together, memories of how it was at the very beginning. I felt I was being carried along on memory lane. I would ride forever.

THE LIST BASED ON THE PLAYLIST I CAUGHT

He Dreams He's Awake
Elevator Love Letter
The Passenger
How Much More
One Heart
(Medley)
Bitches In Tokyo
Undertow
The Comeback
TAKES OUT THE BENCH
PERFORMS AGELESS BEAUTY & THE WOODS ACOUSTIC
Dead Hearts
Take Me To The Riot
We Don't Want Your Body
Fixed
Set Yourself On Fire
YOUR EX-LOVER IS DEAD
One More Night
Encore
Celebration Guns
I Died So I Could Haunt You
Reunion
Midnight Coward
Soft Revolution
Changes

So as I said, they played everything.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SHOW:

- Making friends with Mel & Lance and discussing Barricades, crazy concerts, the guards, and haircuts.
- Torquin & I shared about 12 moments of eye contact where we would both be pounding our chests and chanting the lyrics to words we knew too well.
- When I was blasting a finger gun at Amy during "We Don't Want Your Body", she blasts the gun back at me, and I proceeded to shout "Amy Doesn't Want My Body!" with an enormous smile of my face.
- Sidebar: Meeting this really cool photographer who recognized me from front row at Osheaga.

Check him out, ladies. I did. That's right.
- The Torquin tackle going on near the end of the show.
- WHEN THEY PULLED OUT THE BENCH TO PLAY ACOUSTIC COVERS, I FELT MY FACE MELTING.
- The fact that we didn't have to earn the encore this time. They walked off stage, we applauded preparing to blow the roof off. But all of a sudden, they played a voice over of a commander in chief discussing the number of people being deployed towards a war we knew nothing about. The whole of metropolis fell silent.
- When Torq showed us in left nipple and pec declaring we were there, that's what he gave to us, and that's what we've given him (the heart, that is. not his left nipple and pec.)

-My absolute favourite moment:

Torq's sweet everythings at the end of Set Yourself On Fire.

He has been known for his fits of rage and passion. Which given everything I can't help but love him for. It's devotion like that which gets the music made. But that night, it was something else entirely. He was broken, saddened, and devistated that the band which he had been actively apart of for a decade, was coming to some form of end, change, transition. So he leaned over to us, and broke down with eyes wide open to the people that brought him here. Repeated how he had been told this would end from the very beginning, that nothing would change, nothing would happen. But everything changed. And he was mourning that in the end, it did have to end. As he sang about how there was nothing after that, chin rattling, he cried.

I have only ever cried once at a concert. After seeing Coldplay perform "Fix You", it seemed like the only thing to do. To thank them for giving me a light I though I lost.

But this was my light dying. Seeing the face to the voice I had come to memorize and be insync with slowly dissolve into the man I would forget. For everything they've sung and strummed and talked me through, for obsessing and worrying about life, love, death, roses, and hearts as much as I do. For everything. They were coming to an end. And so I started crying.

I walked away that night with some merchandise in my purse, a fistful of confetti, a single white rose and a playlist, with none of the usual satisfaction gained from adding mementos to my museum of concert clippings.

I'll miss you, Stars. Your discography will always have a permanent place on my iPod and memory bank.

I hope you come back. I really really do.
I still haven't heard "What I'm Trying To Say" live yet.

But if you don't, that's okay.
You hit the streets with all you had.
Thank you for absolutely everything.

the nostalgic and solemn,
mtb.