On Wednesday night Montreal-based indie pop band Stars returned to Metro for the first time in 5 years. I was at the previous Metro show as well, and this one felt a bit more exciting. They played some deep cuts that I appreciated 5 years ago, but the set on Wednesday was a great balance of old and new that kept the crowd dancing all night.

Over the years the band have gone from moody indie pop to big dance hits. At a performance a few years ago Torquil Campbell cited Chicago’s own Frankie Knuckles as an influence on the track “From The Night” off No One Is Lost. Given this wide range of musical genres to work with, it’s no surprise that each song they played delivers its own kind of catharsis for the audience. Be it screaming “Take me, take me to the riot!” or crying out “Take the weakest thing about you and then beat the bastards with it,” the band find a way to dig in under the audience’s skin and give them what they need.

At the end of the set Torquil even said “We are Stars and so are you!” I thought that was a nice way of leaving things. He also said that they played Chicago twice this year (Lollapalooza) and that they’d be back for THREE shows next year. I really hope that’s true.