STELLASTARR* with THE KILLERS Cabaret, Montreal, Quebec February 05, 2004 Review and gallery by Vanessa I absolutely cannot get The Killers' song, "Somebody Told Me", out of my head. I'd heard it before, of course, having downloaded it from someone's blog ages ago, but I'd filed it under "sounding a little too reminiscent of Orgy for my liking", and left it at that (Hey, anyone remember Orgy?). Live, though, the song was redeemed. Backed by an awesome light show, The Killers (who are sporting a rather unfortunate name) breathed new life into recorded material towards which I'd previously been pretty ambivalent. Singer Brendan Flowers, who is much cuter in person than in press photographs, was a capable frontman, holding the audience without forcing himself on us. Drummer Ronnie Vannucci was likewise entertaining; whether it was watching the progressive dampening of his pink shirt ("Did he just spill water on himself? Uh, I guess not. Ew."), watching him break a stick during "Mr. Brightside" or watching him finish most songs standing up, in order to beat the cymbals that much harder, he had an energy that couldn't be denied. In contrast, bassist Mark Stoermer stood mostly stalk still, moving only to lift the neck of his bass in the classic rock'n'roll move. The first half of the set saw Flowers finishing every song on the keyboard, which was verging on annoying in its repetitiveness and predictability. Luckily, they moved into songs starting with keyboard just in time to keep it all from being a yawn. Towards the end of the set, we were treated to a paean to "Indie Rock'n'Roll", with lyrics extolling nearly every cliché imaginable. The intended level of irony was a complete unknown, and that's why the song was so much fun. It was a fitting way to wind down an unexpectedly great set. Stellastarr* took the stage with little fanfare and a lot of noise. The opening notes of "In The Walls" wailed out of Michael Jurin's guitar and divebombed eardrums without mercy. The level of volume remained high - considering the crappiness of my hearing, if I find something loud, then it's loud - throughout the set. Though this was fantastic for those inclined torock out with their bad selves, it actually ultimately decreased the overall quality: a lot of finesse was lost from the guitar parts. Case in point: Jurin's chiming part at the end of "Jenny" was nearly lost beneath the crunch of Shawn Christensen's chords. Christensen himself was in fine form. Though his vocal acrobatics didn't quite reach the same levels as those on the studio, his physical acrobatics more than compensated. Throughout the set he was falling to his knees, hunching over, playing his guitar next to his ear. This fervor reached its peak during "My Coco", when he fell to the ground to crawl across the stage,somehow still playing. I feel sorry for those standing too far back from the stage to have seen it. Though this should have been the stand-out highlight of the night, I found that "Moongirl" really stole the show. Jurin stepped up to match anything Christensen had already given. Playing slide guitar with a shotglass? Throwing his whole body in the last deafening swell before the lyrics kicked in? Absolutely freaking out? In one word, awesome. Arthur Kremer, rocking a very stylish pair of sunglasses behind the drums, was surprisingly unobtrusive as he kept time for the manic guitars. The other half of the rhythm section, Amanda Tannen, stuck out like a sore thumb. An ice cube amidst three livewires, she came across as - dare I say it? - too cool for school. It was as if the energy exuded by her bandmates was being kept out by a wall of stoic disinterest (or maybe just her hair, which spent a great deal of time covering her face). But even she couldn't drag the band down. Despite the potential for everything to come off as masturbatory histrionics, it felt more like good old-fashioned exuberance - and boy, was it ever contagious. © 2004 snapandclap.org. get your hands off our content, motherfucker!