With a band name that evokes late-night hangs, and timeless shared experiences, rising Kalamazoo emo trio saturdays at your place (yes, it’s all lowercase) have gone from playing basement shows to touring the world.
Raised in the now legendary house show community in Kalamazoo’s campus neighborhoods, the group will make a massive homecoming of its own when they headline the first-ever “I’d Rather Be In Michigan” Festival on May 29 at Bell’s Beer Garden.
Named after one of the songs off their newest album, these things happen, released last fall, I’d Rather Be In Michigan completely sold out two months in advance. The brand new fest will mark a defining moment not just for the band and all their success, but for the underground community that continues to support them.
The origins of saturdays at your place trace back five years to Western Michigan University, where vocalist/bassist Esden Stafne met his future bandmates vocalist/drummer Gabe Wood and guitarist/vocalist Mitch Gulish.
“Gabe and I were in the Multimedia Arts Technology Program,” Stafne said. “Mitch was a chemistry major, and he was the only one of us who graduated. Gabe and I dropped out to go on our first tour.”
Stafne’s musical journey started later than most, and he didn’t pick up a bass until he was 18.
“I played sports in high school, so I never really had time for it,” he said. “I learned it the first year of college, and then when I picked up guitar, I started learning to write songs.”
After briefly attending Grand Valley State University, he found his footing in Kalamazoo’s DIY scene, a network that would ultimately define the band’s trajectory.
“What I learned quickly is that the house show scene in Kalamazoo is a thriving one,” Stafne said. “One of the first friends I made asked me to play bass with him in his band. That’s how I met the other guys.”
Feeling the band’s chemistry right away, he pushed for them to play as many shows as possible and meet as many bands as they could from other cities, so they could play show elsewhere as well.
“I told the guys that we just need to go as hard as we can for three to five years, and we could build something,” he said. “Five years later, it’s paid off way more than any of us expected.”
That vision carried them from early recordings to national tours, with their debut album, something worth celebrating arriving quickly in 2021, and their breakthrough EP, 2023’s always cloudy, racking up millions of steams online.
But that rapid success did not come without growing pains.
“Once the lineup came into place, and we had a few songs, we had big goals in mind,” Stafne said. “When we started growing, we quickly shifted into a business mindset… after a while, that can hurt the art. So when we made our last album, we had to get that out of our minds, and just enjoy making the music.”
That renewed focus shapes their second full-length album, these things happen, a record that expands their signature mix of twinkling guitars and emotionally direct songwriting into something more reflective and fully realized.
Inspired in part by Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1999 film “Magnolia,” the album leans into life’s unpredictability—less about answers, more about understanding.
“It’s a pretty surreal experience,” Stafne said. “At times, writing music is therapeutic for me, so it’s pretty crazy to get to hear people singing the songs and telling me stories of how certain songs personally helped them through their tough times. I usually tell them how I was going through something similar when I wrote the music, so it makes a lot of sense that they relate.”
Support from Nashville emo band Free Throw helped them take the next step, with Stafne saying they taught him a lot about how the music industry works, and how to navigate touring.
Touring nonstop did present one last hurdle for the band.
“I was the last one to quit my job in spring of 2024,” Stafne said. “We were on our first full US tour… after the first show in Ottawa, we decided to pull the trigger on our first headliner… at that point we were all fully committed to making this our lives.”
That commitment has taken saturdays at your place far beyond Michigan. Their recent European headlining run earlier this spring revealed just how far their music has traveled.
“Before this year, we had been to the UK a few times supporting other bands, but we had never been to Europe,” Stafne said. “When we decided to do our first headliner over there, we really didn’t know what to expect. The response was overwhelmingly positive… The people are so nice, they buy us beer, and they sing the guitar riffs in a way that makes it feel like a soccer game.”
Leading up to the triumphant headlining slot at I’d Rather Be In Michigan, the band will have just wrapped a run of shows opening for Hot Mulligan in Australia, before preparing to join them and Joyce Manor, on a US summer tour.
“We like playing Michigan, so we try to make it special,” Stafne said about coming how for such a special show. “If we’re gonna play our hometown, we want it to be an event. Kalamazoo deserves the best possible show we can give them.”
At its core, the festival reflects the same sense of connection that defines the band.
“When you are touring, you make friends with a lot of people that live far away from you,” Stafne said. “So this is an excuse for us to bring our friends to us… We also tried our best to have as many Michigan bands as possible.
“At the end of the day, I just hope people have fun,” he added. “Our shows feel like community… Hopefully everyone leaves feeling that sense of community.”
For Stafne, that feeling is inseparable from the place that started it all for him
“I’m proud to live in Michigan,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot of places at this point, and there’s no place like home. Kalamazoo is my favorite city in the country.”
With the first year selling out so fast, will the festival become a summer staple in Kalamazoo for years to come?
“We’ve definitely talked about that as a possibility,” Stafne said. “I would love to keep it going. We’ll see what the future holds.”
For now, though, the show stands as both a celebration and a culmination—a reminder that sometimes, the biggest moments still feel like hanging out at a friend’s place, long after the rest of the world has taken notice.
Kickstand Productions presents: I’d Rather Be In Michigan Fest
Saturdays at your place, Harrison Gordon, Worry Club, Liquid Mike, Finalbossfight!, No Problemo!, Satsuma
Bell’s Beer Garden, 355 E. Kalamazoo Ave., Kalamazoo
May 29, 6 p.m., SOLD OUT
saturdaysatyourplace.com, bellsbeer.com/events, kickstandproductions.net
