With a capacity of just 200 people, Saturdays At Your Place (S@yp) made Hard Luck Bar on a Wednesday feel like a Friday Night. On Wednesday, November 6, 2024, S@yp played a headlining show in Toronto as a part of their Always Cloudy tour.
This tour generally had three opening acts including TRSH, Harrison Gordon, and Carpool. Unfortunately due to issues at the border, TRSH was unable to perform.
The first act to come out was Harrison Gordon. This was their first time ever playing as a three-piece as their guitarist, Jake Denny, stepped in on drums. They began by saying that this was their first time in Canada which got the crowd warm. Their first song, “Bleach,” immediately set the tone for the evening. With loud guitars and powerful vocals, their emo-indie sound was exactly what the crowd was looking for.
Not only were their songs energizing the audience, but their stage presence was undeniable; talking quite a bit between songs and engaging the crowd in some light-hearted banter which had fans yelling back to them, and everyone in the room laughing.
After a few songs, they begin to play, “The Yuppies Are Winning,” which immediately reminded me of something from The Backseat Lovers. This was sort of a slower track, but it had me and everyone else swaying their arms in the air.
They also performed a cover of “The Catalina Fight Song” by Joyce Manor, which when announced, was met with a roar of screams as the fans excitedly listened to this short but rowdy, energetic track.
They closed out their set with “Kirby Down B,” their most popular song sitting at almost three million streams on Spotify. This final track had the audience chanting the lyrics back to the band and really showcased the fan appreciation of Harrison Gordon.
When Carpool stepped onto the stage, one of the first things that lead vocalist Stoph Colasanto said was “I wanna get rowdy,” and the crowd listened. The band came right from the jump with some powerful vocals on their first track.
Accompanying the growling vocals from Colasanto, guitarist Tommy Eckerson fuelled the crowd with a ton of energy as a mosh pit started to form. Eckerson even remarked that he “love, love, loves Toronto.” We also got an incredible solo from Eckerson during “Can We Just Get High?” My biggest takeaway from the entire set was, ‘man, he is absolutely shredding that guitar.’
The crowd during their whole performance was rowdy and energetic even when, believe it or not, Colasanto started singing a portion of “Teenage Dream” by Katy Perry.
After that little change in genre, guitarist Mitch Gulish of S@yp came out for “Whiskey & Xanax.” The crowd started jumping so much that I could feel the floor start to drastically shake.
One of the last songs of their set was a cover of Blur’s “Song 2” which was incredible. Colasanto put his own twist on it during the chorus, stretching his vocals to sound more of what they were used to for Carpool, but the rendition had everyone, myself included, screaming the lyrics.
Saturdays At Your Place walked onto the stage, greeted by a roar of cheering fans. The set started with them playing a bunch of weird and random sound effects, followed immediately by their opening track “first of all” off their 2021 album Something Worth Celebrating. I thought this was a perfect track to open with, it has a gradual build-up and a ‘head-bangable’ beat that got everyone in the crowd moshing and dancing.
They performed back-to-back songs and were slightly less chatty with the audience than the two openers, but the crowd was so immersed in the music it didn’t really matter. When lead vocalist Esden Stafne came on to the mic to say a few words after a couple intro songs, he remarked that he thinks “Canada is very clean” compared to the USA. S@yp hails all the way from Kalamazoo, Michigan. He also said that the Hard Luck Bar has some sentimental meaning to him as he saw the New York rock act, Prince Daddy & the Hyena at this venue in 2022.
The show slowed down a bit as drummer Gabe Wood came up to the mic on acoustic guitar for the song “for tortoise (my cat)” with backing vocals from Stafne. This was a good change in pace, and they kept that vibe going with “forever” which had some insane guitar riffs and audience participation with some synchronized clapping along.
My personal favorite song performed would have to be “pourover”. As soon as the intro guitar melody was played, the crowd knew exactly what was being played and started screaming. This song showcased every part of this band very well from the powerful vocals, from Stafne to the catchy guitar melody from Mitch Gulish. It also featured a great drum solo from Wood.
The band was able to almost control the crowd, especially on “it’s always cloudy in kalamazoo” where they told the crowd to “get down” and everyone who was standing crouched down on their knees in the middle of the venue, singing along for the buildup of the song, “I don’t wanna go home yet, I don’t wanna go home yet” before standing up and cheering the rest of the track.
They closed the show out with the anxiously awaited song, “tarot cards.” This being their most popular song made for an excellent final track and closed off the show nicely. I noticed that although there was a sign outside the venue that specifically read “No Crowd Surfing,” this rebellious crowd decided to have a couple of people fly through the crowd in a crowd-surfing fashion.
After the show, there were long lineups for merch, and members of all three acts came out to talk to fans and sell the merch. The sound and energy of all three acts meshed perfectly together to bring Toronto a Wednesday night to remember.
