Four Year Strong's 12th Annual Holiday Show

"The annual Four Year Strong Holiday Show is one of the most anticipated shows of the year for those of us in the Northeast. Hometown heroes, Four Year Strong always put on a killer end of the year bash in coordination with Massconcerts. The VIP ticket holders lined the block hours before the doors opened, all in their new matching FYS Holiday shirts and holding onto their exclusive FYS stockings trying to get a barricade spot (and hit the bar first).

bloom., a local indie rock band from Boston, kicked off the show with an impressive set. Although they were the openers on a fairly long bill, the crowd was still hype for them and many people were there because of them. Prior to the show starting, I caught one of the members’ parents at the box office speaking to the staff about how excited she was to see her son’s band play on the big stage-which is what this industry is all about and brought a smile to my face. Bearings, a pop-punk band from Ottawa, was the best time to take a bathroom breakor run to the bar for another drink. Collin Hanes, the bassist, put on a phenomenal performance and was the only one that seemed interested in being on stage; perhaps the rest of the band could get a lesson on stage presence from him.

The Movielife catered to a large number of Four Year Strong fans and were a perfect fit for this bill. As a band that is located fairly close (Long Island) but doesn’t tour too frequently, they definitely had a lot of people there to see them. I spoke with one fan who hadn’t seen them perform since 2001 and had traveled all the way from Philadelphia to be there. Front man, Vinnie Caruana, was all over the stage and interacting with every crowd surfer that came near him. Although the band’s most popular music was released in 2003, their fan base and performances have only grown with the times. Knuckle Puck slays every performance. With crowd surfers pounding the stage and giving security a run for their money, the energy that radiates from both the crowd and the band is blinding. Not a beat goes by that isn’t perfectly choreographed by every member. The crowd singing all of the lyrics back at them for the entirety of the set was unlike any other venue, as the Palladium downstairs reverberates like no other place when the crowd is that loud.

Four Year Strong puts on a show. Washing the stage with buckets of dry ice in addition to an entire personal lighting rig, their performance was clearly the reason for the show, and where they spent all of the money reserved for the electric bill. The energy that lights up the venue every time they take the stage at a hometown show is unreal. It is not for the faint of heart (or strength) to be in the pit, as the amount of crowd surfers at least triples compared to the previous bands - and it never stops. The highlight of the night was when they played a new, unreleased song and filmed a video for it during the set. For 12 years now, Massachusetts has gone hard for Four Year Strong and they’ll be right back at it next year."

bloom.