Sarah and the Sundays, a five-piece indie rock band, just finished their national tour opening for The 502’s with their last stop in New Haven at Toad’s Place on September 13th.
The band is composed of vocalist Liam Yorgenson, Brendan Whyburn on guitar, Quinn Lane on drums, Myles Reynold on keyboard, and Declan Chill on bass. The band quietly filed onto the stage to cheers from the nearly packed floor of Toad’s Place. They started up like a well-oiled machine, immediately moving into their first song without addressing the crowd.
Going into this show I was familiar with a few of their songs, but I wouldn’t have considered myself a massive fan by any stretch. I didn’t know the names of the band members, or anything about them really, other than a small number of their more popular songs.
They ran through some of their biggest hits, including I’m So Bored, Ruby Fields, Vices, and Moving On, and most of the crowd was able to sing along with these tracks. Regardless of whether or not the audience knew their discography inside and out, it was an exciting and engaging performance.
Each member of the band looked excited to be there, and that absolutely translated into the crowd. We were all enraptured by the performance; watching the chemistry between bandmates, their seamless transitions, and their high-energy movement around the stage.
They also debuted two songs from their upcoming project. One of these songs was introduced as Afterlife, a track that Liam had shared was about personal loss and was very close to him. The second track was titled Cassandra according to their physical setlists, and they didn’t introduce this song,
At several points during their set, Brendan’s guitar encountered technical difficulties… that is to say, he broke many a string during their brief set. He ended up swapping for his backup guitar, swapping guitars with the keyboard player Myles, and even swapping with the lead vocalist at one point. He had probably played five different instruments by the time he left the stage. Despite this, the band still recovered smoothly each time, without stutters or setbacks.
Despite currently being based in Texas, the band shared that they originally formed nearby in West Hartford. Liam shared how they had actually performed at Toad’s Place previously in 2019 but had remained upstairs at the smaller Lilly’s Pad. This was a rather full-circle moment for the band, and it was inspiring to see them own the stage at the main venue and command the crowd with each song.
During their second-to-last song, I felt someone tapping on my shoulder from behind. I turned around to see an older woman who introduced herself as Myles’s mother, and she asked if she could take my spot against the barricade for a moment to grab a photo.
After they finished their set, they passed the setlists out to fans in the front rows and filed out. I spotted them off to the side of the crowd, watching The 502’s set from a distance. They stayed in that space after the show was over and took photos with fans, chatted with people, and were generally really friendly to the crowd.
As the venue cleared out and people were making their way out, I moved my way over to the band to ask when they were releasing their next project in hopes of knowing when I could listen to a recorded version of Afterlife. After thinking about it for a moment, Liam answered me and told me to expect their next album in the spring.
They were certainly an appropriate opening act for feel-good folk band The 502’s, and though they were slightly less sunny in disposition, they were certainly of similar artistic caliber and stage presence.
Despite them being the opening band, I have to say that I was significantly impressed with Sarah and the Sundays’s high-caliber performance and their ability to maintain the crowd’s full focus for their entire set. I’ve been looping their discography since the show, and I’m eagerly waiting for their next releases. If you’re not already familiar with them, I would suggest checking them out; they have the capacity to be indie’s next big band.
