Four Year Strong return home for the holidays with powerful Palladium set
WORCESTER — For anyone who has attended a few of Four Year Strong’s annual holiday shows over the years, it should come as no surprise that each year has harbored something special that sets that edition apart from the rest. But this year’s return to in-person madness on Thursday night felt different for a lot of reasons, both obvious and subtle.
For starters, it was the band’s first headlining show back in front of a hometown audience since its year-end barnburner in 2019, which was more than enough of a reason to pop off the way night did, but we’ll get to that in a bit. What seemed to truly make the 14th annual holiday show such a triumphant display, however, was the feeling of renewal. There was a palpable buzz that stung the crowd from the get-go, and with each band that took the stage, fans were energized to not only get back to their late-December routine of throwing complete strangers around with (mostly) playful intensity, but also to just be there again, in the flesh and in the moment. And the folks that took the stage were more than eager and prepared to reciprocate that excitement.
Returning for their second holiday show go-around, and their second conquering of the Palladium this year, Keep Flying kicked things off at cruising altitude, but quickly made their way into the stratosphere with Millennium Falcon levels of energy that set the tone for the rest of the night with a definitive statement. Smashing through a 30-minute set, the band balanced a setlist of both new material from their latest release (2020’s Survival) and time-tested rippers that had their dedicated fanbase screaming back the words from start to finish, with as much conviction and soul as frontman Henry Menzel and his bandmates delivered them with. By the time the six-piece steamrolled into the last song of their night, the floor wasn’t nearly as full as it would become, but as Menzel uttered the emotionally poetic lyrics of “Surviving The Night,” it was obvious that the night was going to be about a lot more than just the music.
Also making a return to the Palladium stage, but in a new respect this time around, was Inspirit. Composed almost entirely of the original members of local legends Vanna, the band wielded an intensity familiar to the space they occupied in years prior, and fans made it obvious from the jump that regardless of the past, they were here for all of the nostalgia, refreshed chemistry and artistic power the quintet has rekindled their creative flame with. It is an important distinction to make that this band is not Vanna, because in their relatively short time together, they’ve cultivated an absolute ripper of a catalog of their own – but that doesn’t mean they didn’t revisit their roots with a few trips in the time machine over the course of their scorching half-hour set, as they folded fan favorites of yesteryear in with some of their new stuff, and it was a glorious trip indeed. Frontman Chris Preece and his rhythmically-inclined band of brothers wasted no time searing the stage with their deep-cutting grooves and muscular riffs to help teeter the night in a heavier direction, and got the crowd surfing started with plenty of bodies being tossed to the sky. The nostalgia is one thing, and the guys should be respected and recognized for what they accomplished in a past life, but all in all, this new direction was exactly what this night called for, and they delivered with a renewed sense of urgency and energy that was sorely missed from their camp, and the crowd ate up every ounce of it.
Continuing the trek into the shadow realm, END and Counterparts hand delivered an aggressive one-two punch, which on paper doesn’t sound necessarily unique as both bands are known to do that sort of thing. But with Brendan Murphy — frontman for both bands — going back-to-back with equally demanding sets after a wild, overnight trip from Hamilton, Ontario, to make it to Worcester, the show instantly becomes a titanic feat. With the lengthy trek in mind, it was obvious that Murphy and crew(s) were not coming to Worcester for a night to kick back and relax. They came with a purpose, and Murphy made it known through comically brutal sarcasm and relentless ribbing that he was there to make it count, and did so time and time and again as he called on the crowd to help the security down in front get their workout in for the night. Without taking much time in between songs, both bands contributed quite a bruising in their own regards, both physically and musically, but the clock hadn’t even hit 10 yet, and the main event was still a brewin’.
Each of the four bands that preceded Four Year Strong on Thursday night seemed to activate a specific element of the night that would reach its boiling point as the hometown heroes were welcomed to the stage with raucous applause and playful catcalls pertaining to their masterfully cultivated beards.
The band took a moment to soak in the swelling appreciation before the house lights dimmed and they coasted into the opening riff of “It’s Cool,” a slow-burning track from their latest full-length album Brain Pain that, in the lens of the past two years, inadvertently encapsulates a collective thought process and thus made for the perfect “tick, tick, boom” effect to get things off on the right foot. From there, it was all systems go, as the quartet unleashed a monstrous 19-song setlist that seamlessly married the days of Rise or Die Trying and Enemy Of The World with the latest chapter in their continuously evolving creative journey. It didn’t take long for the goosebumps to appear, as frontman Alan Day relinquished his vocal parts early on and let the crowd take over for a bit before he and guitarist Dan O’Connor vollied the honors for the rest of the night. While the night would go on to have its fair share of “magical” moments, it was telling of what kind of night it was going to be with the first of such occurrences happening so early.
At this point, after 14 years, the band has a somewhat predictable setlist for the annual return home, but honestly, that’s the best part of the whole thing. Sticking true to their battle-tested bangers like “Heroes Get Remembered, Legends Never Die,” “One Step At A Time,” “Stuck In The Middle,” “It Must Really Suck To Be Four Year Strong Right Now,” and “What The Hell is a Gigawatt,” among others, the night flowed freely without a lull. Smoke machines rendered the stage and mosh pit fairly blinding and indistinguishable at times, but that just added an element of intensity that carried through every song blasted from the stacks on stage, and it didn’t slow down the madness one bit.
The only downside to the night, as it is every year, was how quickly the end of the night came, as the band tore into a three-song encore sculpted with “We All Float Down Here,” “Talking Myself In Circles,” and their quintessential closer, “Wasting Time (Eternal Summer).” The band has closed virtually every show with the triumphant gang vocal track since it was first performed at a holiday show over 10 years ago, and even after all this time, and however many countless times it’s been played over that span, fans both old and new brought the house down in their pop-punk playground one more time, but certainly not the last, with an almost religious fervor to send 2021 off into that good night.
Thursday night at the Palladium served a plethora of purposes. First and foremost, it served as a celebration – of new music, another year behind us, and a celebration of the return of tradition. It also served as a reminder, and Four Year Strong took the time throughout their heartfelt homecoming to remind us that not only is it cold out here at the top of the world, but also of just how good, and fulfilling, and pure it felt to find our way back to the Palladium amidst uncertainty, grief and a whole lot of confusion and anxiety to close out the year as a community once again, just like old times.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Four Year Strong return home for the holidays with powerful Palladium set
