June 17—18 - If there's a case to be made for the ingenuity of any of the bands that performed during NXNE, consider Stars: in anticipation of their headlining performance at Yonge-Dundas Square on Friday night, they promoted a secret show into which fans could be invited in exchange for participating in a scavenger hunt around the city.

Fans could visit record shops Sonic Boom and Criminal Records, located in different areas within the NXNE hub of the downtown core, to scan special QR codes to reveal secret words they could use to get on the guest list for a gig so secret that the only two things anyone knew for sure were that it was going to happen early on Saturday and that the third and final clue would be hidden somewhere at the gig at Yonge and Dundas.



Hundreds of people crowded the Square to take in the concert, a huge love—fest. After releasing their latest studio album The Five Ghosts last June, the band chose this month to release The Bedroom Demos, a collection of the demo recordings for their massively successful 2007 album In Our Bedroom After The War.

Fittingly, the energy was flecked with nostalgia as the band performed songs from each release, pausing only to share their own memories of teenage recklessness and many hours spent at the former Sam The Record Man's store, which used to exist little more than a block away.



The gig was on such a large scale that a couple of video screens were necessary to provide a closer look.



The concert ran until 11:00 p.m. and gave a lot of people the opportunity to celebrate with the band. "Take care of each other," front man Torquil Campbell said to the massive audience. "Thank you for being so beautiful to us."

While it was a lovely event, the real party came the next day at the diminutive Edward Day Gallery just outside of Parkdale on Queen St. West. Fans who had worked to scan all three QR codes and register the secret words gathered in the morning sun and waited for the opportunity to get in to such a special gig.



And the band felt the love as well, admittedly fighting off hangovers to perform for the few dozen fans that assembled. In such an intimate setting, they rewarded their fans dedication and effort in the most flattering way possible - by being themselves.



Junior Stars (several members of the band have young children) danced with their parents at side-stage wearing large headphones during the concert, and given the space and the feeling in the air, the gig had all the warmth and caché of a family reunion.

The parallel wasn't lost on Campbell, either, as he spoke very highly of fatherhood. "Don't spend your twenties thinking about yourself," he said. "Have a kid early. Spend your forties thinking about yourself."



Much like the headlining gig in Yonge-Dundas Square, the secret gig heavily featured nostalgic numbers from In Our Bedroom After The War. It began with "Bitches In Tokyo" and "The Ghost of Genova Heights" and "Personal" and continued through an esteemed selection of their back catalogue that included "Your Ex-Lover is Dead" and "Barricade" before the crowd called them out to perform an encore.

And as it turns out, a gathering of a few dozen people determined enough to partake in a scavenger hunt in downtown Toronto are very persuasive, indeed.