Weekend wrap: Riding and Stars

Another weekend is coming to a close. This has been the best weekend of 2006 for sure. The weather was incredible on Saturday so I took full advantage and did the "big loop". 6.5 hrs and 180 km later I was back home and ready for the year's first concert, Stars were in town. Stars was probably my favorite band of 2005. I discovered them somewhat by accident and got my hand on their latest release "Set Yourself on Fire" in September of last year. I listened to that same album for 3 months and never got bored of it. I know all of the words to about half the songs on it and when I saw that they were coming to Calgary I bought the tickets right away. Stars, for those of you who haven't heard of them, are a band from Toronto in the same underground Canadian indy genre as bands like Broken Social Scene, Arcade Fire and Metric. Their disc is incredible and I would consider it a musical masterpiece, I was pumped to see them live.
I met up with the younger 2/3 of the Morris sisters for the show at Mac Hall. The opener was a band I wasn't familiar with and wasn't to excited about so we spent some time milling around with the seemingly enless stream of hip urban indy types. Mark Webster was one of them, he was on assignment for beatroute magazine taking some shots etc.
This show was sold out and when Stars came on the musical magic that flowed from that stage was incredible. Stars has a unique sound with both a male and female vocalist, a violin and the occasional trumpet. This was a performance delivered with such quality and talent I cannot begin to describe it. They played a full show and then came back for 5 more enore songs as everyone was so into it they just couldn't stop. After about an hour and a half it was like waking up from a dream the show was that good. Stars mixed it up with some of their older stuff (from "Heart" another incredible album) and almost all of the tracks off "Set Yourself on Fire". They connected with the packed house like no other band I have ever seen and delivered a performance I will never forget. This was music the way it was meant to be. This band is incredibly talented and I encourage everyone reading this to get their hands on their albums. The last few years I have really started to get into Canada's indy offerings. Canada is the place to be for this type of music. Although some of these bands have somewhat hit the mainstream many stay relatively unknown, such as Stars, a true hidden gem of the Canadian underground music scene. Now I have to scrape together some cash for Metric who are coming to Mac Hall on April 4th.
I took a pile of pictures at the show the best of which you can see below. Let me know if you have tips for shooting concerts, I found due to the light and the constant movement of those on stage that it was difficult to get a clear shot. I moved up as close as I could get, but the front couple of rows were packed so tight nobody was getting in...
Today I went out for another ride, 5 hrs. It was a little chilly, but the wind wasn't to bad. I guess the place to be on Saturday's is still the Cabin Cafe at 11 and on Sunday the local fast cats are meeting up at the Second Cup in Westhills. Dispite my attempt to get a ride going at Cadance it seems it isn't going to fly. I appoligize if any of you showed up to Cadance on Saturday, but I was late to begin with and then flatted literally in my driveway. Might have to hit up those spots as I spent the last 315 km this weekend riding with me, myself and I. Although "The New Pornographers" (Canada's nice band with the naughty name, another great sound) and "Arctic Monkeys" (setting records in Europe, great bunch of 19 year old phenoms from the UK, the next big thing to hit the mainstream) made it all more than bearable.
Pics from last nights flipping amazing show: