Four Year Strong ends 2017 on celebratory note

After a year filled with tribute and nostalgia, Worcester’s own Four Year Strong ended 2017 on the same celebratory note they started it on.

The scene at the Palladium on Saturday night, as the hardcore quartet prepared to unleash the fury that later ensued at their annual holiday show, showed a crowd with a mix of hardcore lifers (aka “Dads”), devout fans, and fans who were seeing the band for the first time, and the combination seemed to be the perfect storm, as they, together, exuded an energy as intense as the windchill factor outside.

Putting together a solid support lineup, as the Four Year Strong camp does every year, the bands that took the stage represented the different “ingredients” that make up the style of Four Year Strong, parts pop-punk, alternative, and hardcore — and if the crowd’s reaction to each group was any indication of their satisfaction, none of them disappointed.

Grayscale, hailing from Philadelphia, got the night off to a great start with an upbeat dose of pop punk that, while garnering only a few crowd surfers — and surely a few new fans in the process — had the crowd primed and ready for action throughout the rest of the night.

Brooklyn’s Incendiary opened up the hardcore portion of the night with a searing set that got the pit swirling, with a relentless energy that lasted throughout their time on stage. While the music was what many would consider to be “angry,” the message within the lyrics of frontman Brendan Garrone brought forth a show of support to some current socio-political issues, showing the social side of the hardcore community, in addition to bassist Matt McNally’s “Protect Trans Youth” tank top.

While not of the same hardcore ilk as Incendiary, Andover-bred Piebald gave the sound system one last flexing before relinquishing the parquet stage to Four Year Strong, as its final set of 2017 brought a fairly nostalgic feel-good '90s alternative vibe that carried enough momentum (and enough cowbell to put Will Ferrell to shame) to keep up with the increasingly active crowd. The groove was as free-flowing as frontman Travis Shettel’s hair, and with more than enough “umph,” the energy that lasted throughout their short set carried over, turning into a deafening buzz of anticipation for the main event.

The vibe was set even before soundcheck was completed, and Four Year Strong took the stage to what seemed like an earth-shattering applause, as the hometown hardcore heroes sent the 10th anniversary of Rise or Die Trying off into the sunset along with 2017. By the time the band ripped into “Heroes Get Remembered, Legends Never Die,” the fourth song of the set, the crowd had already gone into complete pandemonium as mosh pits opened like black holes in space, and fans sailed over the barricade, without concern that they’ll most definitely feel it in the morning.

Throughout the hour and 15 minutes the band was on stage, fans sang along, word for word, as if they wrote the songs themselves, so it’s safe to say that RODT has stood the test of time, without much exaggeration — or any at all, for that matter. Following the completion of the album for the last time in 2017, frontman Alan Day dove head first into fan favorites off their other albums, with songs like “Find My Way Back,” “Go Down in History,” “One Step At a Time” and a nearly barricade-breaching rendition of “Tonight We Feel Alive (On a Saturday),” which was fitting, as the crowd let the band know full well that they were indeed alive on Saturday night at the Palladium.

Even with blasts of cold air invading the space from time to time to relieve the physical stress of overheating in the pit, the climate in the building felt like a sweaty, slam-dancing sauna by the end of the night — which just may have made the single-digit temps a bit more therapeutic for the trip home.

The sense of community and solidarity within the walls of the Palladium on Saturday night was palpable, and evidence that the selfless nature of the holiday spirit was still alive and well as Four Year Strong finished off what has to be one of the most exhausting, but exciting years in the group’s history, with yet another successful homecoming holiday show.