Stars

Having never seen Stars live before, I was intrigued when I arrived at King Tuts Wah Wah Hut because the venue was packed out (though it doesn’t take too much!).

One thing I did notice about these gig goers, was their look. Everyone appeared to have a similar appearance, and I felt a little out of place for not fitting in with the standard indie apparel.

	"It wasn’t a gig where you could just go along and come away loving their music. The sound was well produced, perhaps too produced? It was an immaculate sound, almost of CD quality."

Stars received a loud reception as they came on stage, although it could have been a lot louder given the size of the crowd. I was looking at many of the individuals at the gig and they all struck me to be a proper fan, all knowing the music really well, as opposed to just turning up to a random gig to check out a band.

The front man (Torquil Campbell) had all the qualities of a good frontman; taking hold of the stage and the crowd, with an off putting fully suited dress sense that resembled the likes of Mark E. Smith.

The harmonies between Campbell, and the band’s female vocalist and guitarist, Amy Millan were pleasant, and Millan’s individual vocals were something a little more special.

As the gig went on, the crowd grew louder and sounded like a very receptive bunch. However, I did expect more from an audience that appeared to be into a band so much, and thought they could have been livelier in their movement to the music - it seemed to just be pint holding and head nodding.

The band really did take their fans into another place with their music, the connection could be spotted easily, one lyric jumped out at me when Millan and Campbell sang “Get through this and you won’t look back”, and the crowd really seemed to feel what they were singing. However I didn’t. Perhaps my experience of never having seen this band live affected that, but it seemed that if you weren’t part of that particular core of fans, you just didn’t get it.

It wasn’t a gig where you could just go along and come away loving their music. The sound was well produced, perhaps too produced? It was an immaculate sound, almost of CD quality. Whether this is a good thing or not, is up to individual opinion.

Millan told a story mid way through the gig, when some of the equipment wasn’t working properly, of her last time in Glasgow. She had everyone’s attention in the room, so I was hoping, for her, that it was funny, but then again with such adoring fans maybe they wouldn’t care either way. It turns out it was, and after that moment I felt she commanded the stage far easier than Campbell did.

The band’s variety of instrumentation kept their style a little bit more unusual, which was a nice quality. The other three band members, on base, guitar and drums, didn’t excite, but they didn’t disappoint either.

Of the whole gig, I felt the band’s attempt at being different made them a little bit too familiar. The vocals reminded me of The Magic Numbers, and their style, of many I have seen before, however there can be no fault in the music playing or sound quality, it just struck me as a little boring.

FUTURE GIGS

sorry, we currently have no gigs listed for this act.