Amy Millan at Harbourfront; Saturday July 25, 2009

Amy Millan at Harbourfront; Saturday July 25, 2009

I use to love Stars and everything that was in or involved with Stars. They were the band that opened my eyes to so much - The Pogues, Broken Social Scene. I can't remember which one I stumbled upon first. They were one of the bands that I really took to heart.

It's weird because I have an MP3 player that doesn't hold much anymore (16GBs) and I found myself removing Stars from my library. They don't have that place in my heart anymore!

I really like Amy's solo stuff. Or at least I did, I thought it sounded a great deal like Mazzy Star's flat vocals with Sarah Harmer fueling the music.

This show was the first time I was able to see Amy alone and I discovered how boring I find her material. I really wasn't into it. She played her cover of Death Cab's "I Will Follow You Into the Dark". Millan has just about made that her own song from playing it so much. She launched into it for her second song and she didn't even introduce it. She played two or three more covers - of them an older Sarah Harmer tune. She exclaimed Harmer is due to release another album - I couldn't agree more!

The entire time I was really hoping for "Look Up", an older Stars tune that Millan owns. From Youtube I've noticed she plays it solo from time to time. She didn't tonight.

I really love her band, it's minimal - she has an occasional trombone and banjo. It gives it a bluegrass and jazzy vibe. It spices up and saves her music as best as it can. She also had a mandolin player which I never noticed on the album but is stupid clear in live show as a key component to her songs - recorded or live.

Her voice is what ruined this gig for me. It's flat and low in her solo stuff... quite the opposite from her Stars bit. She almost seems bored. She really needs help from her band to pick up her vocals and music - breathing new life into it.