Of all the vague labels that music writers sometimes default to when describing a band’s sound, “chamber pop” has to be one of the more perplexing. Often just referring to the presence of thoughtful lyrics and intimate string arrangements, these descriptors may have suited Hey Rosetta! and Stars at the beginning of their careers. Still, ever since they began main-staging at festivals like Osheaga and the Calgary Folk Festival, categorizing these two Canadian groups as chamber pop seems more and more inappropriate. Although the label still persists in write-ups about both bands, each has, in their own way, wiggled out from under this quiet-time catch-all – something that they made crystal-clear to a Thursday night packed house at Metropolis.
In fact, the venue was already filling up nicely when Newfoundland’s Hey Rosetta! opened the show. Touring behind their Fall 2014 release Second Sight, the St. John’s 7-piece proved that one way to escape the tyranny of chamber pop is to get bigger than the room itself, busting down doors with the new record’s first track “Soft Offering (For The Oft Suffering)”. A group of multi-instrumentalists (including a violinist and cellist), the combination of Phil Maloney’s drums and the band’s assistance on percussion had arrivals dancing their way down Metropolis’ sloping floors to get into the crowd. As he took the audience through the band’s sprawling multi-part songs, lead singer Tim Baker – often switching between guitar and keyboard in mid-tune – celebrated the giant sound of 2011’s Seeds and brought a new depth to some of Second Sight’s more low-key moments (the nearly seven-minute “What Arrows”).
Although Baker made a few references to having been sick and spending most of the day “coughing and spitting into a Holiday Inn garbage can”, it was hard to tell from his soaring vocals. After finishing the new record’s single “Kintsukuroi”, Baker stood in front of the brightest lighting rig I’ve seen in a while to thank the crowd. “You’ve healed me,” he said, before closing with the shimmering and triumphant “Welcome”.
If Hey Rosetta!’s trajectory has been to keep getting bigger than chamber pop, then Montreal’s own Stars decided to change the room entirely, abandoning the syrupy string section that opened up 2004’s towering Set Yourself On Fire for the electronics of 2012’s The North and the dance-tribute of new record No One Is Lost. Opening with that album’s lead-off track “From The Night” and its chorus of I don’t care if we ever come back from the night, lead singers Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan adapted another one of their signature all-or-nothing stories into a manifesto for the crowd: have a good time, move around, and make it count.
While Stars have never shied away from using electronics, going as far back as 2003’s “Elevator Love Letter” (curiously represented in the set by a stripped-down intro of just Millan’s voice and bassist Evan Cranley), No One Is Lost brings the band’s embrace of keyboards and slinky grooves to a whole new level. Although Stars often play Montreal, this set-list seemed specifically designed to get crowds on their feet, and it succeeded. Even Campbell, known for making dramatic declarations about love, death, and politics in mid-show banter, seems to be having more fun, shaking his butt to new tunes like “Trap Door” and “You Keep Coming Up”. Meanwhile, with showcases like “This Is The Last Time” and “Turn It Up”, former Broken Social Scene member Millan showed once again that no other voice can capture strength and emotion like hers.
When No One Is Lost came out this Fall, I didn’t embrace it as immediately as I had with Stars’ earlier records. Although I was worried that I would be resistant to the band’s turn to the bleeps and bloops of the dance-floor, the flattest moments on the album were actually the tunes (encore closer “What Is To Be Done?”) that can’t escape the legacy of the group’s earlier work. Even so, the band was able to use their energy and momentum to lift the set-list’s potentially weaker songs to new heights. Certainly, the breakthrough success of Set Yourself On Fire and songs like “Your Ex-Lover is Dead” and “Ageless Beauty” will follow Stars at all stages of their career. But, with their Metropolis show, the band crafted an evening that acknowledged this past while looking on to a very bright future, with lasers and dancing.
Hey Rosetta!
Soft Offering (For The Oft Suffering)
Gold Teeth
Yer Spring
What Arrows
Young Glass
Neon Beyond
Harriet
Red Heart
Kintsukuroi
Welcome
Stars
From The Night
Ageless Beauty
We Don’t Want Your Body
Turn It Up
Backlines
You Keep Coming Up
A Song Is A Weapon
This Is The Last Time
Hold On When You Get Love And Let Go When You Give It
Look Away
Dead Hearts
Trap Door
Midnight Coward
Elevator Love Letter
Take Me To The Riot
Your Ex-Lover Is Dead
No One Is Lost
Encore
Are You OK?
What Is To Be Done?
Review – Dan Corber
Photos – fotoprawn
