Nostalgia is a funny thing. Through a certain lens — one I’ve personally gazed through many times — it can be lazy, reductive, even dangerous. Spend your time longing for a past that you imagine to be your best years, and you hobble yourself from building a meaningful present or, for the luckiest of us, a meaningful future. This isn’t a novel observation, and yet it’s one so many of us have a hard time putting into practice. Don’t believe me? Just scroll through the YouTube comments section of any song over 10 years old.
For indie acts who hit their stride in the early to mid 2000s, nostalgia becomes an especially formidable force, looming like a slow-motion tidal wave as they enter middle age. These aren’t just people who experience nostalgia like the rest of us — they’ve created and energized it for the entire world with their art, however willingly or unwillingly. How do you handle that without going backwards? Do you surf the crest of the cascading water or just let it wash over and pummel you?
Confronting Nostalgia Head-On
Which brings us to Stars, Broken Social Scene, and Metric, legacy indie stalwarts whose bands may not all have formed in Canada, but whose members are all more or less from there. And that’s important. I could draw you a byzantine family tree, Venn diagram, beehive, or — most appropriately — Ian Malcolm-esque Chaos Theory graphic that illustrates how all of these respective folks are connected; their triangulation between Toronto, Montreal, and yes, New York; their individual arteries to the central heart of Arts & Crafts Productions; their various relationships, marriages, and feuds that, in some cases, date all the way back to elementary school. But I only have so many words and so much time. So just know that these artists are friends. Very, very old friends. And their triple-headed half-hydra “All the Feelings Tour” was always going to feel like a grade/middle/high-school-cum-young-adulthood reunion custom-made for Gen-Xers and elder Millennials like myself — for better or for worse.
Fortunately, Thursday night’s show at Brooklyn Paramount (the first of two on their schedule; tickets for all their dates are available here) was very much for the better. Because unlike some larger musical acts of older generations, all three bands have decided to confront nostalgia head on, rather than just pretend they’re something they’re not. Metric and Broken Social Scene have both released albums this year (Romanticize the Dive and Remember the Humans, respectively) that actively engage with the past — not just with fondness, but reflection and interrogation. Should we romanticize the dive bars and late nights of our youth? Can we still remember that we’re all human in the wake of AI and the tendrilling darkness of, well, everything?
Stars Set the Tone
As if striving to answer these paraphrased questions from their comrades, Stars kicked off the bill with “Hold On When You Get Love and Let Go When You Give It,” which ultimately became a kind of thesis for the night. When frontman Torquil Campbell bellowed the lyric “Take the weakest thing in you and then beat the bastards with it,” he notably changed the word “bastards” to “Nazis,” driving home the idea that love, warmth, and human connection are often our greatest weapons — if not for actual combat, then at least fulfillment and survival. The phrasing takes on extra weight in 2026 than it did all the way back in 2012 for obvious sociopolitical reasons, but also because of the emotional and familial miles since treaded by the band.
Broken Social Scene’s Laid-Back House Party
If Stars was recapturing (or perhaps reframing) the nights out of our youth, Broken Social Scene transformed the stage into a laid-back house party from that same era. The size and revolving-door nature of the lineup has been a running joke for literal decades at this point, but it’s still hypnotic to see it all expand and contract in real time. People often forget that a BSS show rarely starts with all the present members onstage. Rather, opener “Cause = Time” began with just the long-running core of co-leaders Kevin Drew and bassist Brendan Canning, guitarist Andrew Whiteman, drummer Justin Peroff, Swiss-army musician Charles Spearin, and later addition Sam Goldberg (though even he’s been a regular presence for close to 20 years now).
Metric’s Futuristic Nostalgia
Of the three acts, Metric seemed most aesthetically focused on the future — at least at first. Some of that just comes from the cybernetic nature of their synth-pop, further modernized by a sleek light show and glitched out projections. During a set front-loaded with material from Romanticize the Dive, the energy and visuals were more chromatic and spartan than the two preceding bands, with Emily Haines mostly addressing the audience through strange and robotic monologues that referenced the past while also feeling disconnected from it.
By the time the rest of Broken Social Scene joined for a campfire singalong on “Loyal,” it was clear that Haines had been teeing up the most daring, exciting, and thematically resonant moment of the night — a stretch of songs that, after an hour or so of cyborg chic, fully humanized the stage. The light show largely stopped (or at least became less kaleidoscopic), and for the rest of the night, she spoke casually to the audience, admitting that she’s not sure where the world is headed or if forces as nebulous as friendship and harmony can actually defeat evil. And yet at the same time, playing with her friends is the only thing that feels right and natural to her. It’s the only thing that’s ever felt right to her. The sentiment was nostalgic, yes. But also futuristic. Maybe even eternal.
In conclusion, the “All the Feelings Tour” is a testament to the power of friendship, nostalgia, and the human connection that binds us all. With Stars, Broken Social Scene, and Metric at the helm, this tour is a must-see for anyone who’s ever experienced the joy of live music and the camaraderie that comes with it. As the tour continues to make its way across the country, fans can expect a night of unforgettable music, laughter, and maybe even a few tears. So, don’t miss out on this opportunity to experience the magic of these three incredible bands together on one stage. Get your tickets now and be a part of this unforgettable journey into the past, present, and future of music.
Pixel P. Snarkbyte, widely regarded as the “Shakespeare of Sh*tposts,” is a video game expert with a unique knack for turning pixels into punchlines.
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