Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

seeing stars

The Canadian indie pop band Stars was in town last night for a show at the 9:30 Club. Having never seen them live before, I was unsure of what to expect, but I really enjoyed it. They're even a bit theatrical: There was a David Byrne-esque moment early on when the lead singer ran offstage and came back to dance awkwardly in an eccentric suit -- not in a grossly oversized suit but rather one festooned with lots of lights. And at random moments throughout the show, members of the band would toss fresh flowers out to the crowd.

I was happy that they performed a good number of their older songs, including two of my favorites, "Your Ex-Lover Is Dead" and "Calendar Girl." For the latter two, the lead singer encouraged the audience to sing along with a key lyric, and there was something vaguely cathartic about singing those lines en masse -- "Live through this, and you won't look back" from "Your Ex-Lover Is Dead" and "I'm alive" from "Calendar Girl."

NPR is streaming the audio from the concert on their Web site, and I assume it'll go out in MP3 format on the All Songs Considered podcast sometime this week. (I just love that NPR does that.)

Unlike at the Neko Case show, the club allowed amateur photography this time around, so I have a few photos to share:

More Photos of Stars at the 9:30 Club »

Edited 7:43 p.m. - Speaking of photos, Flickr users Dots, Lines and Polygons and window bird have some great shots from the show.