Upon descent into the Stylus the energy was jovial and the room filled with talk among the 20 and 30 somethings that had shown out for Origami Angel and Saturdays at Your Place Last Saturday. The room was padded to around 80% of its capacity when the ambient music rolled a nice minute before the start of Michigan trio Saturday’s at Your Place, opening the night with Hospital Bed and igniting the energy of Stylus. Frontman Esden Stafne ran the crowd work over the course of their 30 minute set, shakily promising a fan a UK headline tour for the trio next year between musings of enjoying being on this side of the Atlantic and a cheeky “F*ck Trump”.
Saturdays at Your Place breezed through beautiful melodies, producing a sea of gentle headbangs and giving the pit enough fuel to simmer while Stafne and drummer Gabe Wood traded vocals between each other. The gut-wrenching lyrics of tracks such as Coffee Cups had their blows softened by the genuine graciousness that Saturdays at Your Place emanated and the comfort that grew on-stage, with Mitchell Gulish in particular relaxing into his guitar and starting to mess with his side of the room a little by the latter half of their half an hour. By the time closer Tarot Cards was ringing out the party had officially started.
Half an hour later, the screen on the Stylus stage lit up once again, this time with a speedrun of the seminal Pokemon Emerald then opening shop with album track Lost Signal. The speedrun accidentally became the focus of the set for many; the gaze of the crowd and the duo alike became fixated on an impressive two and a half hour run before snapping back into the live show. The set itself was an hour in total, balanced between older tracks such as Escape Rope and Noah Fence and those from the newest projects including Dirty Mirror Selfie and Fruit Wine. Heagy brought his energy when he was playing, be it his two-steps in circles around the stage or the faces he pulled to groups around the room between vocals. Heagy also brought the humour, slipping in the Weezer noise at the end of single Thank You, New Jersey, certifying Origami Angel as silly jokesters; only misstep in the humour would be opting for Ruby over Emerald out of their Pokemon-themed EP, but it can slide.
Between tracks, however, Heagy did seem to struggle a little with working the room, hitting the frontman trifecta of ‘how we all doing tonight/can we play some old and new songs for you guys/this has been the best show of the tour’ within 40 minutes of the 60 minute set - the latter of which feeling particularly strained with the knowledge that this was only night two. The pinnacle of awkwardness was possibly the question “what did they say before Lets go?” met with a silence then giggles; they can’t all be winners, Ryland. Nevertheless, the Stylus crowd supported him the best way they knew how, with a couple rounds of “Yorkshire!” to give Heagy something to laugh about before resolving to get back to the tunes. The vibes in the room stayed immaculate, be it those who wanted to mosh and move with the music or those happy to let the set become an epic backing track to the four badges earned in the first hour of the speedrun in the background, while the supporting track throughout the set offered the Sonic humour that made us about to lose our marbles!
Now a theme with the Stylus shows, it was not complete without an adorable pair of kids to deliver faith in the future of emo. Donned in noise cancelling headphones, the littleuns headbanged away and took it in turns to run down to the main standing area for their own jumps around with their parents, gaining a deserved wave from Heagy by the end and a healthy amount of coos from those around them. Overall, Origami Angel and Saturdays at Your Place put on a lovely show to watch and successfully matched the grown-up party vibes of the Stylus Crowd on Saturday night - the space felt safe, the room alive, and the crowd sweaty and smiling as they ascended back into the real world at the end of the night.
Words: Julia Brunton
Photos: Sarah Henry
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