Stars in Manc

After already buying tickets to see the Montreal outfit Stars in Cardiff Wales, which is close to me but a pain in the ass to get to, I brainstormed with my bosses wife Nicola and luckily enough they were playing Manchester at the same time as I was going to be there for my new job's orientation. After the induction ceremony I went back to my new friend Charlie Murphy's (no lie), who played lax in college with my friend Tom Moriarty at Denison, in Altricham. We had a quick bite at Pizza Hut where I heard Badly Drawn Boy song on the radio....crazy I know but he is from Manchester. So I then took the train from Altricham(which I got laughed at for not pronouncing it Altringham) to Piccadilly station in Manchester, and from there I went to the venue. It was a place called the Roadhouse, and if I didn't ask 10 people I would have never found it. As I walked in the first opener who had a smoke machine operator, murmured through their set consisting on one constant 30 minute song tied together with audio clip of speeches from such people as Robert F. Kennedy. The 2nd band, who I thought were the roadies for Stars, Roland Shanks, weren't too bad although I was impatiently expecting Stars. Their music was typical 21st century revivalist 80's minimalistic garage rock. The funniest part were these two blokes who between every song chanted "You are so generic!" to the melody of Guantanamera. After they exited it was pretty quick for Stars to get on, mostly because they set up all their equipment themselves. They played all the hits and telling by my pics I stood on a chair to right of the stage where there was a little side area. It was a dungeon like venue but that's my favorite kind. After the encore all but Torquil the singer went back into the dressing room. I approached him and we had a nice chat. I told him about my circumstances of being from Buffalo and having just moved to the country, so I thanked him for the welcoming gift. We talked about their ensuing tour in the states with Deathcab For Cutie, who he informed me had just sold ten thousand copies of their new album in its first week, which is pretty good for an ex indie band. We also talked about Broken Social Scene, whom two members of Stars are member of, and how their album which is to be released on October 4th had already been leaked to the internet. Very logically he explained how indie bands can't rely on records sales but make most of their profit on live shows. I told him I felt no remorse for downloading it due to all the money I have already spent, and the numerous people I have turned on to the band. He assured me BSS and more importantly Feist would be over in England while I would be living there. I walked back to Piccadilly hopped the train back to Altricham and all was well. Here's a BBC review from the show.Piccadilly Manchester