I Used to Go to This Bar

Venue: The Ritz

City: Raleigh, North Carolina

Tour: I Used to Go to This Bar Tour

Date: June 12, 2026

Featuring: Joyce Manor, Saturdays at Your Place, Koyo

Genres: Punk Rock, Emo, Melodic Hardcore, Alternative Rock, Midwest Emo

Photos by: Arielle Johnson

Some tour packages are built around a shared history. Others are built around a shared future.

Friday night's stop of Joyce Manor's I Used to Go to This Bar Tour at The Ritz in Raleigh felt firmly rooted in the latter. Featuring support from Koyo and Saturdays at Your Place, the lineup brought together three bands that have each released significant new material recently, offering a snapshot of where modern punk and emo stand in 2026—and where they might be headed next.

Rather than relying on legacy alone, all three acts spent the evening demonstrating how their newest records have expanded their sound, sharpened their identities, and positioned them for the next phase of their careers.

Koyo continue to prove that melodic hardcore and emotional vulnerability can coexist without compromise. Their newest album, Barely Here, feels like the culmination of years spent refining their sound. While earlier releases showcased enormous potential, the latest material presents a band with a clearer vision of exactly who they are. That confidence translated directly to the stage.

The Long Island outfit delivered one of the night's most energetic performances, seamlessly blending crushing riffs, sing-along choruses, and emotional weight. New songs hit with the same force as established fan favorites, a testament to how quickly the latest record has connected with listeners. The crowd demanded a return to real hardcore and Koyo delivered.

Perhaps most impressive is Koyo's ability to evolve without alienating the audience that helped build them. Their recent material expands the band's melodic instincts while preserving the hardcore roots that remain central to their identity. The result is a band occupying a unique position within today's punk scene—equally comfortable sharing stages with hardcore acts, pop-punk bands, and emo artists. Judging by the response in Raleigh, that versatility is becoming one of their greatest strengths.

Few bands in the current emo landscape have experienced the kind of momentum that Saturdays at Your Place have generated over the past two years. Their set at The Ritz showcased a band growing into its potential in real time. The newer songs landed with the confidence of a group no longer viewed simply as an exciting up-and-comer, but as one of the genre's emerging standard-bearers.

The band's latest material builds upon the earnest storytelling and Midwest emo influences that initially earned them attention while introducing a stronger sense of structure, melody, and songwriting maturity. Live, those songs felt larger and more dynamic than ever, connecting immediately with a crowd that seemed just as invested in the new tracks as the older favorites. What stands out most about Saturdays at Your Place is their ability to make deeply personal stories feel universally relatable.

Their newest work, These Things Happen, suggests a band learning how to translate intimate experiences into songs capable of filling larger rooms, and Friday night's performance showed they are more than ready for that challenge. For a group still early in its career, their trajectory feels remarkably clear: bigger stages, bigger audiences, and an increasingly important role in shaping the next generation of emo.

For Joyce Manor, I Used to Go to This Bar arrives at an important moment. Nearly two decades into their career, the California trio could easily survive on the strength of a beloved back catalog. Instead, their latest album feels energized, purposeful, and creatively ambitious.

Throughout their set, the new songs held their own alongside fan favorites that have become staples of the modern punk canon. Rather than creating a divide between eras of the band's career, the material highlighted a throughline that has always existed within Joyce Manor's songwriting: concise arrangements, sharp observations, and an uncanny ability to capture complicated emotions in remarkably few words.

What distinguishes I Used to Go to This Bar is the confidence with which the band embraces growth. The songwriting feels more expansive, the themes more reflective, and the arrangements more nuanced, yet the songs retain the urgency and immediacy that first drew fans to the band years ago. The newer material didn't feel like an obligation to promote a recent release—it felt like the centerpiece of a band entering another productive phase of its career.

In many ways, that may be the album's greatest accomplishment. Rather than serving as a retrospective victory lap, I Used to Go to This Bar positions Joyce Manor as a band still actively writing its story.

Each band's newest release represents a different stage of development, but together they paint a picture of a scene that remains creatively vibrant and constantly evolving.

By the time the lights came up at The Ritz, the lasting impression wasn't one of reflection—it was one of momentum. Three bands. Three new records. Three careers moving decisively forward.