Alan, guitarist for Four Year Strong

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Enemy of the World Tour:

feat. Four Year Strong, Title Flight, This Time Next Year and The Bled

January 18, 2010
Culture Room, Ft. Lauderdale, FL

Review by Katie Condon
Photos by Jazmin Prieto

       Kids were not only thankful for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. this year for a day off of school, but also for the opportunity to go see Ft. Lauderdale favorites Four Year Strong on their Enemy of the World Tour at Culture Room.

       The line outside was filled with cigarette smoke and conversations about Steak and Shake. That combo led me to figure that I’d have to deal with a rich crowd, since nobody really has money for those delicacies anymore.

       Once inside, I assumed that the DJ was confused, as Incubus and 3OH!3 didn’t exactly match the feel to the upcoming show. However, the audience had no problem singing along and getting low—nothing was going to kill their excitement.

       Title Fight was first on the bill, and unlike most opening bands, they were true guests in the crowd’s book. Overcoming mics that sounded like they had not been sound checked, the Pennsylvania natives got kids surfing and moshing to songs such as “Symmetry.” Even with rough cut vocals and punk drum beats, it is difficult to assign a label to the band, as they often switch to slow trippy intercessions.

Pete Dowdalls of This Time Next Year

After their set, I was lucky to find a couple of cynics who didn’t think I was crazy carrying a notepad and pen. For the rest of the night, they would serve as the opposition to screaming girls wearing FYS shirts.

This Time Next Year of California was up next. With two vocalists, the band brought the whole venue back to the happy days of pop-punk power with New Found Glory and Blink-182. Although the vocals sounded forced at first, a quick warm up was all the band needed for the audience to join them in the classic synchronized jump. They streamed through songs such as “No Bed of Broken Glass” off of the 2009 album Road Maps & Heart Attacks and “Cheers to a Late Night” from the 2008 EP The Longest Way Home.

Dimmed lighting and sound checkers gave it away that Four Year Strong was about to grace us with the perfect mixture of pop punk, hardcore and gang vocals.

They left the stage saying “rules are rules” as the crowd begged for an encore. Yet, that was not the whole room’s opinion as one of the guys from earlier said, “I’m on acid, and they still sucked.”

James Muñoz of The Bled

The oddballs of the night, The Bled, took, or should I say, stole the stage after a quick set change. Hailing from Arizona, the hardcore band had no problem satisfying a crowd that is used to a lighter sound. This was the point where girls and first timers found out that sandals are a mistake and how to throw an elbow back.

“We will rock in heavenly places,” vocalist James Munoz screamed. With no original members left in the band, the men managed to own the stage and break it down—metal style—in songs such as “Smoke Breaks” off of their 2010 release, Heat Fetish. When they ended their show, most of the crowd ran for water while the die-hard FYS fans refused to give up their spot.

Jake, drummer for Four Year Strong

Dimmed lighting and sound checkers gave it away that Four Year Strong was about to grace us with the perfect mixture of pop punk, hardcore, and gang vocals. Then, Dan O’Conner’s unmistakable voice shouted out “Roll with the punches,” from “Bada Bing! Wit’ a Pipe!,” and that was all the fans needed to know that the experience was going to be a beating worth taking.

The stench of sweat took over my nose. Wishing I was taller than five feet, I endured the smell and sang along to songs such as “Men are from Mars, Women are from Hell,” “Prepare to be Digitally Manipulated,” and “Catastrophe” from 2007’s never dying album, Rise or Die Trying.

Alan and Dan of Four Year Strong

However, the band also shifted the set to newer songs like the single, “It Must Really Suck to be Four Year Strong Right Now,” and “Wasting Time” off of Enemy of the World, set to drop in March 2010. Usually, I would have no problem taking notes, but with fans like these, the safest place for my notepad was under my shirt.

The band brought us back to Third Eye Blind with a cover of “Semi-Charmed Life” and didn’t leave before closing with their hit, “Heroes Get Remembered, Legends Never Die.” Even with new battle scars and near death experiences in the pit, I’ll be on Four Year Strong’s side when they take aim against the world.

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