In honor of their new record Analysis Paralysis, which they released halfway through 2024, Four Year Strong is touring through Europe for the month February, making their way to Eindhoven on Sunday the 16th. For the European mainland, they brought along the German band Shoreline to start the evening off strong. The venue tonight is slowly starting to fill up during their opening set.
Lead singer Hansol Seung takes a couple of moments to address the crowd throughout their opening set as well. Dressed in a shirt with the words ‘no one is illegal’ (and the back showing ‘no borders, no binaries’ on it), he’s clearly not shying away from making a statement. He mentions how we as a community need to make sure the scene is a safe space for everyone, and actively work on it so it doesn’t just cater to white men. In a predominantly male crowd, one can only hope the men are taking some lessons from the young punks on stage. Their set is short and fast, just like their music, and the venue is pretty packed by the time they end.
While Four Year Strong is described to be ‘pop punk’ and ‘hardcore punk’, neither genres really do the band justice. The guitar riffs and breakdowns go hard as hell and from the second they start playing, the crowd erupts in a huge mosh pit that doesn’t die down for a minute during the set. The men have no time to waste, as they are stuffing the 16 song setlist into a set that takes a little over an hour.
There is one small break where “Bada Bing! Wit’ A Pipe!” was supposed to be played (as it got crossed off the setlist), as vocalist/guitarist Dan O’Connor shouts out Dynamo’s stage manager Odet, since it’s her last day for the venue, before quickly moving on to play “Brain Pain.” That’s about all the break we get in between the songs. The setlist has a good mix of both new and old songs, and everything is met with the same enthusiasm from the crowd, meaning everything gets screamed back at them just as hard as the guitars are being shredded.
There’s no back drop for the headlining band, instead just opting for a very stripped down, no nonsense stage. Just the four bearded men going through every single guitar riff as if their life depends on it. They’re all equals to each other, as Alan Day and Dan switch doing vocals and guitars throughout each song, and bassist Joe Weiss and drummer Jackson Massucco take up just as much space as the two leads, to the point where Jackson’s drums aren’t even on a riser either. And truly, this band doesn’t need anything else but the power and energy they put into every one of their songs.
For the next ten days, Four Year Strong is touring through the UK, with limited ticket availability for each stop there. You can find tickets for these shows at https://fouryearstrong.com.
GALLERY: Four Year Strong with Shoreline at Dynamo in Eindhoven, Netherlands (February 16, 2025)
