Images: Saves the Day, Stolas, Twin Cities September 17, 2016 at Backstage Bar and Billiards

“Let’s all get married after the show” proposed Saves the Day frontman Chris Conley, partway through his band’s sold out, headlining set at Backstage Bar and Billiards. This was their first headliner in Vegas in over a decade and Conley was definitely enjoying himself, and the crowd was too.

Things kicked off with “Anywhere With You,” the Weezer-esq lead single to the band’s fourth album In Reverie. At the time of its release, the song and album were definitely considered divisive, but now it was greeted with a packed bar screaming every word, fists pumped high for the song’s chorus-ending “woo.”

While the New Jersey band is best known for its one two pop punk/emo classics Through Being Cool and Stay What You Are, it was nice to see a portion of the crowd singing along with more of the latter day material. The early part of the set especially focused heavily on post SWYA tracks, including “Say You’ll Never Leave,” from 2006’s Sound the Alarm, “Kaleidoscope” from 2007’s Under the Boards and “Where Are You” from In Reverie. While not everyone in the bar was singing for those songs, the ones who did made sure they were especially loud, earning a smile from Conley each time.

Conley and company, after conversing with the crowd a bit more and possibly making after show plans to hit up Commonwealth with 300+ of their new best friends, then shifted gears towards the older material, though tracks from debut Can’t Slow Down were sadly absent. This is when the crowd really came to life, going from the calm sing alongs expected of those with 9-5 jobs to 30 year old teenagers, leaping over each other for a chance to sing just a little bit closer to the band. Bassist Rodrigo Palma seemed to feed the most off the crowd, jumping to the edge to shout words to “Shoulder to the Wheel” and “Freakish” with frenzied fans.

Interestingly enough, outside of those two tracks, the TBC and SWYA cuts were more on the deep side, with usual standards like “At Your Funeral” and “Rocks Tonic Juice Magic” replaced with “Nightingale,” “Jukebox Breakdown,” “My Sweet Fracture” and “Third Engine.”  The band ended with “Firefly” and a sea of feedback, leaving the crowd to wonder if they’d be returning for an encore. And while that encore never happened, a future Vegas show seems especially likely, as the band turned to Facebook a while after to say “Still thinking about how much fun we had at our Vegas headliner last weekend.” We love you too, guys.

The night’s penultimate act was Stolas. While the locals are stylistically much different than Saves the Day (i.e. louder. MUCH louder), the post-hardcore band feels like a nod to Saves the Day’s label Equal Vision Records. The band’s style actually reminds me a lot of Saves the Day’s current tourmates Coheed and Cambria (this show was an off date of STD’s Coheed trek). This was my first time seeing the band since drummer Carlo Marquez took over lead vocal duties and he did a great job, with pipes reminiscent of Anthony Green and Coheed’s Claudio Sanchez.

The highlight of the band’s set was the sheer mayhem brought about by their boundless energy. In particular, guitarist Sergio Medina, who was never in one place for very long, bouncing off amps and the drum kit while somehow maintaining the kind of peak shredding ability that could give Sanchez a run for his money. Stolas barely paused between songs and when the set was over the crowd was speechless.

The bar was already full, though not uncomfortably so, when locals Twin Cities took the stage to kick off the night. The band’s brand of heart-on-their-sleeves emo also felt like a nod to Saves the Day’s label history, as they wouldn’t be that out of place on Vagrant Records circa 2002. While the crowd of Saves the Day diehards were clearly unaware of the local scene stalwarts when they came out, they were quickly won over by the band’s cathartic performance. In fact, the group standing next me couldn’t help but yell “this band is so fucking good” after every song. (Yes, every song) This was my first time seeing the band as a five piece and I really enjoyed the dynamic of having two vocalists. The songs shine even more with this fuller sound and I can’t wait to see what the band does next.

-Emily Matview

Photos by Hunter Wallace | https://www.flickr.com/photos/hunter_wallace/