SPILL LIVE REVIEW: MILITARIE GUN w/ TEEN MORTGAGE & COMBAT @ HARD LUCK BAR, TORONTO

MILITARIE GUN w/ TEEN MORTGAGE & COMBAT

@ HARD LUCK BAR, TORONTO

MARCH 26, 2026

On March 26th, Joyce Manor fans around the Greater Toronto Area were left distraught and hopeless after the band announced earlier in the afternoon that they’d be cancelling that night’s show. Even though they would be returning to Danforth Music Hall with Militarie Gun in a few weeks, spirits were dampened, and people’s journeys began to feel in vain. This feeling didn’t last long, as Combat, Teen Mortgage, and Militarie Gun quickly found a solution that didn’t throw out the baby with the bath water. Instead of sending everybody home empty-handed, why not just play a show with all the opening bands at a much smaller venue? It was a pretty incredible idea, as the show sold out at least half of the Hard Luck Bar within hours. Say what you will about Toronto music fans, but nothing will be able to stop them from supporting and enjoying the music they want in their eardrums.

The first band to take the stage was Combat, a five-piece from Baltimore; an energetic and decidedly emo outfit that boasts fancy tap riffs and endlessly infectious choruses. Their songs are quick and tight, sometimes so quick that the song had finished by the time I could process the tap riffs that their guitarist was producing. Seeing as the average Joyce Manor record is a half baker’s dozen of songs and 18-some minutes in length, this sort of ‘all killer, no filler’ attitude is heavily embraced.

Soon afterwards, Teen Mortgage took the stage, a band that refuses to let the might of their sound be determined by the number of people you see on stage. Throughout a 25-some-minute set, the band exploded into various politically charged anthems that got the crowd moving in an insane way. It’s like a switch had been flipped, one second everybody was talking and drinking, and the next, there were heavy mosh pits to heavily distorted guitar riffs and explosive drumbeats.

When Militarie Gun took the stage, all hell broke loose. As a group that’s been blowing up fast within the current scene of contemporary post-hardcore, they took the stage with well-deserved confidence and burst into a collection of their fan favourites. Including the anthem with an endlessly changeable chorus, “Pressure Cooker.” The band performed a great amount of material from their latest release, God Save The Gun, while also featuring some favourites from their first couple of albums. My head perked up like a curious golden retriever when I heard the opening chords of “Big Disappointment,” a track that I was sure wouldn’t make the cut for the setlist that night. With the arrival of the closing song of the set, “B A D I D E A,” Ian Shelton, the vocalist of Militarie Gun, encouraged the crowd to stage dive, an act that would get you immediately at the Hard Luck Bar. However, this undeniably created a visceral ending to a concert that was conceived just hours before its music began. It’s safe to say that the people who attended the Hard Luck Bar on Thursday night had a great night.

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Main Photo Credit: Nolan Knight