Going Strong

This just in from correspondent Scott McLennan:

Four Year Strong put on its second annual holiday homecoming concert Saturday at The Palladium in Worcester, once again shaking the sold-out venue with the next wave of pop-punk thrills.

Last year the band was capping a successful tour promoting the indie record “Rise or Die Trying,” and this year it's readying the masses for its next album, due out on the Warner Bros.-backed Decaydance label launched by Fall Out Boy honcho Pete Wentz. The buzz Saturday was that the record will come out in late spring or early summer, and that Four Year Strong is in contention for a few big summer tour packages. The band will also be joining Thursday and Bring Me the Horizon on the Taste of Chaos tour, coming to the Palladium Feb. 27.

The festivities Saturday included an indoor blizzard courtesy of strategically placed snow-effect machines and a lineup of bands that highlighted rising pop-core acts Lions Lions, Energy, and A Loss for Words. The show also included several calls for remembrance for Dominic Mallary, a well-known singer in the Central Mass. punk circuit who died earlier this year after a freak injury.

California's Set Your Goals (ably assisted by Bay State guitar shredder Jon Strader of No Trigger) lit the fuse with a chaotic set before the homegrown headliners sealed the deal with a razor-sharp performance. Singers and guitarists Alan Day and Dan O’Connor, synth player and singer Josh Lyford, bass player Joe Weiss, and drummer Jackson Massucco looked like they were having a blast belting out such signature tunes as “Bada Bing Wit’ A Pipe!” and “Maniac.” And the onstage frenzy proved infectious, igniting massive mosh action and overall joyous mayhem among the audience.

Expect good things in ’09 from Four Year Strong.