Saves The Day, Into It Over It, Hostage Calm – Live (Sept. 7th, 2013)

It’s weird to see a Saves The Day news story pop up every once in a while. A band that began making a name for themselves around the turn of the century with their breakthrough 1999 album, Through Being Cool; it seems that the band should have called it a day many years ago. Yet, they’re still going strong and every few years they’ll announce a new album or something similar. Sadly, they’ve never truly been able to hit that right chord and truly break free from their old voices – something that isn’t aided by the fact that frontman Chris Conely doesn’t look a day older than he did back in 1999.

Now, in 2013, with a new album on the horizon being released through their first label Equal Vision Records, the band is taking their brand of pop-punk/emo on the road where they hit Vancouver’s Biltmore Cabaret on Saturday night.

Opening the evening was Connecticut’s pop-punk upstarts Hostage Calm, focusing mainly on select cuts from their latest album Please Remain Calm they played more in the pop spectrum of the genre. A decent, yet forgettable performance, they at least had the crowd popping along by the time they ended their set with Don’t Die On Me Now and you can’t help but smile when a band says “this is the raging punk version for you raging punks” at a Saves The Day show as they performed a full band version of the previously a cappela track Patriot.

Following that up was Into It. Over It. touring for the first time with a full band. Full of energy, Evan Weiss had the best comment of the day when he asked the lighting  technician to light up the front of the stage so he see his guitar and actually play the song right because it was more complicated than it looked. Still, like Hostage Calm, there was very little of note to Weiss’ set. Better than expected (Into It. Over It. has always been a band I’ve avoided) but still a bad Dashboard Confessional knock off.

After a short wait, Saves The Day came on and for the next hour and fifteen minutes played with a detached passion. Yes, there was sweat and energy and Conely’s voice hasn’t wavered much over the years but there could’ve been more –  you know?

The fans who knew the words eagerly sang every lyric back at him while the others simply popped around for the fun of it. Despite coming up on their eight album, Saves The Day made the smart move and focused more on their first three albums. It’s a band that survives based on nostalgia elements – songs like Shoulder To The Wheel and Firefly.

At 1044 their roadie came on stage to say they have 16 minutes left to play because – as the Biltmore stupidly does every Saturday night – they double booked the venue for a shitty night club afterwards. A quick band meeting, Conely stepped up to the mic and announced “we only 16 minutes left, so we’re cutting our set a bit but are still gonna play like 15 songs really fast.”

Those fifteen songs ended up being only five, yet it is during those five songs that Saves the Day finally shined. Playing all their classics, the crowd went insane. When they pulled out At Your Funeral, it became a pop-punk show you wanted to be at; like it would`ve been in  their heyday. Circle pits, pogo dancing and crowd surfers abound – Conely dropped the guitar and sang straight to the crowd.Handsome Boy and Jodie ended the night and for the briefest of moments you saw why Saves The Day were still doing it. It`s just sad that it takes a fifteen year old song to get that to come through.