Stars singer Amy Millan tells Festival House guests to have sex

Festival Music House, the three-day Canadian music showcase during TIFF, opened last night with performances by hit DJ Chilly Gonzales, Coeur de Pirate, Basia Bulat, Royal Wood and Stars. The purpose of the event is to put homegrown talent in front of Hollywood producers, execs and stars. We spotted such familiar Toronto faces as Jian Ghomeshi, Bruce McDonald, Feist and Michael Riley, a.k.a. Dr. Tom from Being Erica, at the Roosevelt Room.

The biggest draw was Stars, who had the room packed with people dancing (perhaps more accurately described as swaying) to songs from the new album The Five Ghosts. The band threw rose petals at the crowd, and male lead singer Torquil Campbell vamped, doing his best Ray Charles on the keyboard, joked about a spec script (“If anyone wants to develop that shit, let’s talk”) and played a rad-looking harmonica-piano hybrid, as singer Amy Millan bellowed, “If you go home and have sex tonight, you should really call it TIFF.” Good idea, Amy. Let’s get Dan Savage on this—maybe he can start a grassroots campaign to make “TIFFing” the new term for sex.

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