Stress. I’m stressed. You’re stressed. How do you beat the stress when it feels like that’s all life has to offer? My dad says I should go jogging. My professor says I should sleep. I say you should go to a god damn concert. Each performance I saw at the Laterdays show on the 22nd had their own style that reminded me of the ways that art, and music specifically, can eliminate, embrace, forget, or go beyond what it means to feel “stress.”

The first performance of the night was from Kylie V,  a singer-songwriter whose melodies bled beautifully into the air as their lyrics poked earnestly at our heartstrings. It was a soft opening to the night, as their voice and telecaster were the sole intertwining sounds. The performance felt like Kylie was opening their stitched up soul to us as we got to take a look at the depths inside. I saw stress dissected here, with lyrics acknowledging the anxieties and fears we feel in day to day life — illustrating them into a comfort all of us could relate to. 

Next up for openers was Ramen Fog, a jazzy indie pop band who you could tell was able to communicate a thousand words to each other with just the pluck of a high E string. I got immense enjoyment out of seeing the bassist and drummer make eye contact, smile, and hit the hook flawlessly, and that was before I knew the bassist was filling in that night. The way the band communicated to each other and with the audience with guitar solos and smirks made me think about how music can, without saying a single word, pull our attention away from the stress of everyday life and indulge in the sheer amount of fun one can have with art. 

The final opener was a band I had never heard of, never seen before, but was immediately scrambling for more of their music online as soon as I heard them: Superbudget. Superbudget is a five-person psych pop/shoegaze band that can be described with one of my favourite words that I learned in English class this week: 

Paroxysm: a sudden strong feeling or expression of an emotion that cannot be controlled 

I was immediately in a trance when Superbudget played their first song. I was back to the days of discovering emo rock for the first time, aggressively rocking my head to the distorted guitars intertwined with the bellowed vocals of “When I was fifteen.” Their music reminded me of what it’s like to release your frustration towards the stress in the world. To pick up a guitar, say fuck the world, and sing your heart out. 

And finally came Laterdays, the main act of the night. With the openers, I heard music that dissected, escaped, and embraced the pressures of the world. With Laterdays, I saw a way of dealing with stress I somehow hadn’t thought of before: the fact that living life didn’t have to be a question of how can I live life, but how can we live life. On stage was a lead singer, lead guitar player, bass player, trumpet player, and a backup singer, and they played as if they’d all known each other since childhood. The crew pulled off a sound that recreated that sweet bite into a nectarine during cherry blossom season. Looking around at the band and the audience, I was reminded of why I even recommend going to concerts. Not just for the music, but for the people and fellow weirdos out there. To find others who understand just how strange, weird, and funny the act of living can be.