[Thanks to Mindy Wu for all of this. – AC]

Earlier this year, when the announcement of Metric, Broken Social Scene, and Stars’ ’All The Feelings Tour’ came out, I was waiting breathlessly to see if Ottawa was going to be announced. Lo and behold, October 5th was happening.

Ottawa was the second-last night of the leg of the tour, which took place at TD Place.

I’ve seen all three bands separately live, but seeing all three under one roof is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that wasn’t to be missed.

It would have been the cherry on top if Feist was on the bill, and it would have been the trifecta for Canadian indie music, but she is on a different level now, and who doesn’t need that baggage?

Stars was the first band to kick off the show.

Starting off with my favourite, “Hold On When You Get Love and Let Go When You Give It” from The North, followed by “Elevator Love Letter” from Heart. During the song, Torquil gave me a shout-out during my three-song set in the photo pit.

I got a lot of joy and emotion hearing the favourites “Take Me to the Riot,” “Dead Hearts,” “Ageless Beauty,” “Your Ex-Lover Is Dead” and “No One Is Lost.”

For about 45 minutes, I wished they played a little longer.

Broken Social Scene was the second band, with Kevin Drew, Brendan Canning, Charles Spearin, Andrew Whiteman, Sam Goldberg Jr., Justin Peroff and Rachel McLean.

The first three songs in the photo pit were “Cause = Time,” “7/4 (Shoreline),” which was accompanied by Amy Millan, Hannah Georgas and Jill Harris of Dwayne Gretzky, and “Ibi Dreams of Pavement (A Better Day).”

The band did play three tracks from their 2026 album Remember The Humans.

It wasn’t until they played “Fire Eye’d Boy” that it hit me seeing most of the members of Stars and Metric perform all on one stage was something pretty special.

Then came the big moment when Emily Haines came on stage to sing “Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl.” With all the excitement, it was the moment that I finally got a chance to see and hear how it sounded like on the album.

Singing out loud the part, “Park that car, drop that phone,” with friends was the best part, and at least they didn’t have their phones out and give them the wag of the finger.

No “Lover’s Spit,” probably because it is a long song, but they ended off with “KC Accidental” to end on a high note for their one-hour set.

Ending the night was Metric, who was the headliner.

With 10 albums under their belt, it seemed that they were playing mostly from their 2026 album Romanticize The Dive, while sprinkling in songs from Fantasies, Synthetica and Formentera.

During the first three songs in the pit, I noticed a change in Emily’s vocals, either a little struggle or just squeaky. I dunno.

Amy Millan came on stage to sing “Breathing Underwater,” which was fun to sing along to.

Another great moment was when members of Broken Social Scene and Stars came on to perform “Loyal.”

I was a little disappointed that they only played one song from Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?, “Combat Baby,” and one from Live It Out, “Monster Hospital.”

For a tour titled All The Feelings, I would have loved to get the feelings hearing “Dead Disco,” “Succexy,” “Wet Blanket,” “Empty” and “Front Row.”

Seeing all three bands together as friends and musicians on the stage shows how special and nostalgic the moment was.

What a wonderful Monday evening, which left me with “All The Feelings” while picking up a T-shirt too.