Ahead of their headlining set tomorrow night at The Vic, Montreal’s Stars stopped by JBTV to play a few songs. I, along with an intimate crowd of fans, were treated to a six-song set sampling tunes off the group’s latest release, No One Is Lost. The record has been out for a while now, so most of the audience felt free to sing along without messing up the words. For those that did screw up on “This Is The Last Time,” it was ok because there was a technical issue with the monitors and the band (and the fans) took a second shot at it.

Amy and Torquil, co-singers of the band, seemed pretty loose on stage. Bass player Evan took to the mic during the glitch to talk a little bit about his great grandfather Ed Kelly, former Mayor of Chicago-quite possible he made this up but it seems possible. Most of the half hour or so in the studio was filled with music, not chatter. And honestly, I like these songs much better live than I do on the record. There’s more life in them with the live drums playing a big part of the sound.

Torq dedicated the set-and album closer “No One Is Lost” to the memory of Frankie Knuckles, Chicago dance music pioneer. A classy move, no doubt. And the song lived up to that house spirit with the crowd throwing their hands in the air with wild abandon and dancing like we were at Sub 51 down the street.