stars and gentleman reg: “the way all shows should be”
and so my crazy week of shows has come to an end…and i don’t even feel excessively sleep deprived. not bad.
the week couldn’t have ended with a better show than stars and gentleman reg at the grad club. it’s rare that i look forward to seeing both bands on a bill as much as i did on friday (although the same could be said for joel plaskett and cuff the duke on tuesday i suppose), and i didn’t leave disappointed.
the grad club was sold out, and things were filling up nicely by the time the gentleman reges took the stage. they played a good set made up of songs from both darby and joan and make me pretty (including a lovely rendition of give me the chance to fall, during which robin, jo, anne and i all performed the hand claps). the crowd didn’t seem to be completely engaged, but hopefully he won some people over.
i headed up the stairs between sets to go to the washroom before stars hit the stage, and i met the band on their way down. evan cranley gave me a look like he knew me, and as i was looking back at him, someone grabbed my hand. it was amy millan who repeated 3 times: “give me love!” ah, so it was going to be that kind of show.
they took the stage in a somewhat high state (ok, that might be a huge understatement) and launched into a high energy, fantastically fun set, opening with set yourself on fire, and playing a number of songs from each of their 3 lps (including 3 tracks from nightsongs – a pleasant surprise). a highlight was when torq was describing the scene surrounding the stage, beginning with the fact that chris seligman’s massive keyboards were set up on the floor beside the stage, essentially in the middle of the crowd. also in the front row was someone who was reviewing the show. “let’s see what she has to say,” torq said, as he took the pages from her hand. she leapt up on stage to retrieve her work but it was too late, torq was already reading it aloud: “energetic; the way all shows should be”. he liked that and told her she could stay, and set out to prove that it really was the way all shows should be. the encore was interesting – amy didn’t return to the stage, and torq explained that the band had been having philosophical differences about encores. add to that the fact that the keyboard had lost power, and they had to improvise. cranley played the guitar part on the first five times, a song they’ve apparently never played live before, and closed with tonight from nightsongs. fantastic.
the downside: although this didn’t affect me so much, this tall guy elected to stand directly in front of maggie and tayisa. anne actually asked if he’d mind moving over a bit, but apparently he did. in order to punish all of those behind him, he decided it would be a good idea to fart through the entire set. thankfully i was out of range, but i got to watch the results. good lord.
oh, and there was no crowd surfing. i was hoping to see someone launch themselves off the stage during reg’s set, but no such luck. regardless, i know it’s pretty early to make this statement, but i would be very surprised if stars didn’t end up on my best of 2005 list.