riot personal midnight

Those were the three words that got me into the secret Stars show. All are words found in the title of songs from their wonderful album "In Our Bedroom After the War".

Mathew wanted to give the words to a friend of his. I told him he wasn't allowed to. "It's not fair!" I protested. "You should have to put in the work to go to this show. A lot of people were running around town like me. It wouldn't be fair if your friend got one of their places." It's hard to silence one's internal teacher. Especially since I all I could picture in my head was the sweet couple who I ran into the first night of the scavenger hunt. I had problems getting my qr-scan app to work, and they gave me the first word. I wanted them to get into the show before Mathew's friend who is unknown to me.

Anyway, on Friday I saw Stars put on a very good show at a very packed Yonge-Dundas Square. Thankfully, they had big TV monitors beside the stage. I was so far away that I wouldn't have been able to see anything if it wasn't for those screens. The show was really great though. The band played many songs from their latest "The Five Ghosts" and a bunch of oldies/goodies, included "Elevator Love Letter" and "Set Yourself on Fire". I loved the YD Square show, but I have to admit that throughout the show I kept thinking "tomorrow is going to be wicked!"

Saturday was a bright sunny day and perfect for waiting in line for a bit. We to got the secret location (an art gallery on west Queen West) early just to be safe. The organizers were kind enough to hand out water since it was pretty hot with the sunshine beating down upon us. I'd just run up the street to buy some, but the gesture was appreciated.

I had a mini-heartattack when we were being let in. I had forgotten my wallet on my kitchen counter because I'd taken it out to get a penny to uncover a code on a calling card to call Claire that morning. Anyway, I wasn't worried when I first noticed: Mathew could spot me cash for whatever I needed to buy that day. However, they were checking IDs to let people in and all I could think was "fuck, what if they don't let me in without my ID?"

Anyway, when I got to the security dude, I told my sad story and I was like "I'm 31, that's pretty old." He went on about the event being strictly IDed or something. I think I looked crestfallen until he said "you can still come in... just means you can't drink!" I laughed so hard. Drink? That was the least of my interests. I just wanted to see my band. Phew.

We walked into a big white gallery with some contemporary art on the walls. The stage had bird cut-outs overhead and there was a triptych of birdcages painted on fabric as the stage background. How appropriate that I, a bird lover, was in attendance! There were maybe about two hundred people in attendance; so it's definitely the most intimate Stars show I've ever been to.

I felt like the two-hundred super fans in attendance had just as much energy of the crowd of thousands the previous night at YD Square. The band opened with "Bitches In Tokyo" which is another favourite of mine (I'll admit, all Stars songs are kind of my favourites). After Torq thanked us for coming out, he went into a mini anti-Mayor Rob Ford tirade (one of my favourite tirades) and played another great song.

I can't describe how awesome it was to see such a great band in such an intimate venue. They put on an awesome show with tonnes of energy considering they had played the night before. For the encore, they played a fabulous version of "Take Me to the Riot" and finished with a very pretty "The Aspidistra Flies".

Here are some pictures that I took. They're not the greatest, but they definitely give you an idea of how intimate the show was.

My pal Matt from Winnipeg couldn't come to the show because he's in Winnipeg, but he unlocked the live stream of the show and got a screen capture of it with me in it. I think it's from when the show was over and Mathew was getting a shot of the drumkit on the stage.

Here's the last song they played. It's so pretty. Give it a listen.

Torq closed the show by saying "we are stars and so are you." Awww, what a nice sentiment. It was nice to feel lots of love from a band like we did during this show. It's so great when a band tells you that they appreciate you for listening to their songs.

Hope you all have a nice week, my fellow stars.