When one gazes up at a medley of stars in the night sky, it isn’t unheard of to feel profound wonder. This feeling can often be coupled with a multitude of others ranging from longing to melancholy, but always wonder winds up at the centre of it. The band Stars, alongside their Canadian indie brethren Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene, is something I “grew up” with during my formative years. Yet, after hearing Stars’ latest album No One Is Lost, I was a bit afraid to see what the band had become when I saw them at Royale this past Sunday. I was incredibly nervous that their desire to move into new territory musically would dull their past material or even erase it altogether. But, Stars managed to mix their new songs with their old without removing deep sense of wonder that they are capable of inspiring in others.

Hey Rosetta!, another Canadian act, opened the show and almost immediately tapped into that realm of Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene, a good sign for the night to come. Their fairly large ensemble that featured a traditional 4-piece rock band that added 3 multi-instrumentalists channeled a musically deep and layered landscape that you would expect from their slightly more famous Canadian compatriots. Yet it was most definitely rooted in the realm of a more modern and sharp indie pop sound. Hey Rosetta!’s use of strings and brass instruments at various points, alongside the fun but somber tone of the vocals of frontman Tim Baker, pointed and harkened back to Set Yourself on Fire, which definitely resonated with the crowd. In fact, the band seemed a little taken aback at points by the audience’s enthusiasm, laughing to themselves when they were requested an encore.

Not to be outdone, Stars hit the stage to the classic Wizard of Oz tune “Over the Rainbow” with vocalist Torquil Campbell singing along as they set up. Greeting Boston with a “how the fuck are ya?”, the band quickly jumped into their latest single “From the Night”. If you haven’t heard the band’s latest album, this song pretty much fully embodies their recent shift towards a dance sound that brings you back to the days of the 70’s discotheque. This was accentuated by the dancing light-up hula-hoop girl in the crowd. Assuaging my fears though, the band followed up with “Ageless Beauty”, a single that put them on the map back when Set Yourself on Fire came out ten years ago. When they followed up with a performance of “We Don’t Want Your Body” it quickly became clear that Stars wasn’t going to try and layer their new approach to their older tracks, to my relief.

Thanking the “beautiful” Boston audience for coming out on a Sunday night and acknowledging that it was people like them who helped them raise their kids and not their sales on Spotify, Torquil in that brief moment managed to lead me to the understanding of what Stars had become. They weren’t dramatically changing their core to try and match the modern indie pop scene, they just were having a little more fun with being a band and their playfulness could definitely be felt on stage. That being said the gravitas of Stars has always been a dependable strength of their music. This held true when they played “Dead Hearts” with Torquil reminding the crowd not to run away from their ghosts. The older members of the crowd could definitely be seen being drawn back in time, singing along passionately with vocalist Amy Millan as the band played “Elevator Love Letter” to her own surprise.

Ending their regular set with the title track of their latest album, the only concern of the crowd was that was going to be the end of the ride. But the band came back. “What else are you gonna do on a Sunday night,” Torquil asked the audience. “watch Nancy Grace?” “Fuck that” became the sentiment of the room as Stars wrapped up their escapade to the past and moved foward. Bringing the night to a close with “What Is To Be Done?”, the band successfully brought the crowd back to the future with smiles on their faces and warm feelings of wonder in their hearts.