Sate – The Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto – January 22, 2016

Photo and Review by Erin Donnelly

This past Friday evening, Toronto-based artist SATE and her band performed in their hometown at the famous Horseshoe Tavern. The Cool Hands, The Honeyrunners, and XPRIME were the opening acts for SATE’s ferocious performance.

The lead singer is Sate herself, who commanded the stage with her booming vocals, dance, and smile.  In support, her guitarist, bassist, keyboard player, and drummer created a powerful energy that is heard and felt throughout the entire room. The music is a fusion of blues and rock, which brings out the best in both styles, and Sate often incorporated back-up vocals from her band members, which allowed the band to mix things up between Sate’s soulful and sultry voice, and their expressiveness as well.

She played a variety of songs, including “Know My Name” and “Mama Talk To Me”, but the one that stood out the most would have been the fourth song in the set list – “Try”.  It was the interaction of the band and show goers that brought the song alive with passion and strength.

She thanked the crowd on numerous occasions throughout the entire show, showing her appreciation to both old and new fans cheering for her on the dance floor.

For an artist that I knew little about until this show, I can tell you sincerely that she is one of the most resounding artists I’ve heard. It not always obvious as to when she’s going to end a song, and that’s ok because my feeling was that I didn’t want her to end at all. She feeds off of the energy from her band and crowd and is explosive with how much she gives back, over and over again.  She made sure that she didn’t let anyone turn their eyes away from her performance.

Sate’s video for “What Did I Do?” was released on Friday as well, to help promote her upcoming album, RedBlack&Blue. Her inspiration for the album has come from her 3 EP’s titled Red, Black, and Blue respectively, all of which were fueled by her emotions and love that she has for her daughter, mother, and sister. You can hear this emotion within her loud and proud, bluesy vocals.

Overall, it was a fantastic evening that kept the crowd alive and wanting more. A great local band to check out at her future performances.

You can check out her songs on her YouTube and Soundcloud accounts at the following links.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7evgNCBrruKe73i6ylgP2g

https://soundcloud.com/stateofsate

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBD-H3WTod0&w=560&h=315]