Stars @Town Hall, Oct. 18th

Perhaps fitting that they played only steps from Broadway, tonight the mighty little Canadian band Stars entertained the crowd at Town Hall with their lyrically-detailed and melodrama-packed songs full of beat and perfect melody. The adorably nerdy Torquil Campbell and guitar-shredding Amy Millan traded off singing duties as they led us through a setlist full of favorites from their previous album, Set Yourself on Fire (a Qbertplaya all-time favorite), and their latest release, In Our Bedroom After the War. They even found time to play "Elevator Love Letter" and "Look Up" from their debut, Heart.

(The encore consisted of the following four songs: "The Night Starts Here," "My Favorite Book," "Ageless Beauty" and "Calendar Girl.")

This was my fourth time seeing Stars, the last time being in February 2006. While I do listen to them on my iPod all the time, sneaking into the front row and catching them tonight really reminded me why I find their music irresistible. As Torq perched on the edge of the stage and sang his heart out to the audience, his shirt drenched with sweat, and eventually jumping down and practically assaulting a fan (in a fun way), he displayed a bravado that suggested we were indeed witnessing some kind of a theatrical event.

I only caught a wee bit of the opener, New Buffalo, with whom I had zero familiarity. Pretty voice. New Buffalo aka Sally Seltmann seemed to be in need of a band, although she did have another female on backup vocals for a while, and Jens Lenkman out for a duet, which was kinda neat...