Live preview of Stars’ new album

As frontwoman Amy Millan pointed out, it takes a lot of trust for an audience to buy a ticket to see a band play songs that they’ve never heard before. That’s exactly what happened at Starlight on May 6.

Montreal-based indie band Stars took to the stage at Starlight to play their new album The Five Ghosts in its entirety, a month and a half before the album hits stores.

The night started out with an interesting alternative to an opening act as frontman Torquil Campbell DJed from the back of the venue, accompanied by a light show on stage.

After Campbell’s set, the crowd listened intently as the band ran through the 11 new songs on a stage that was beautifully decorated with white flowers.

Opening with “Dead Hearts” and getting great responses for songs like the new single “Fixed” and the synth-heavy “We Don’t Want Your Body”, the album was executed perfectly.

Intertwined with light-hearted banter from singer/songwriter Torquil Campbell about swearing too much and not being able to see the people at the back of the venue, the songs were done justice by Starlight’s sound system.

With the new material being received incredibly well by the audience, the band came back out to play an encore of songs that had been voted on by fans.

Playing favourites that spanned the career of Stars like “Your Ex-Lover is Dead”, “Ageless Beauty” and “Heart” the crowd moved and sang along until the show was brought to a euphoric ending with Campbell on vocals and Chris Seligman on piano performing “Tonight”.

Despite forgetting the lyrics, which Campbell humorously accredited to 20 years of marijuana use, they brought the show to a successful close.

In what was supposed to be a four song encore, the band made it clear that they appreciate their fans and played seven of the songs that had been requested.

Speaking to The Cord, Evan Cranley of Stars said that they always aim to create “a personal, intimate experience” for fans. He continued, “I don’t want to go out and just play through the songs, I want there to be a connection.”

A visually and sonically impressive show, it’s clear that the Stars fanbase is only going to grow with the June 22 release of Five Ghosts.