Review by Robert Moody

The Institute in Birmingham was a hot and sweaty place on Thursday night as a capacity crowd turned out for the visit of one of the hottest properties in rock music today, American quartet Four Year Strong. With a couple of strong support acts in tow the crowd arrived early and were ready to party from the first note.

Opening the bill were Don Broco, a 4-piece from Bedfordshire playing one of their first major tours after several years of hard work playing smaller shows. They wasted no time in getting the crowd moving, with vocalist Rob Damiani frequently encouraging the crowd to jump around and keep the mosh pit going, and even joining in with the ‘wall of death’ they set up towards the end of the set. Not that the encouragement was really needed, as there were a group of fans amongst the crowd who danced along to every song. The years of practice were clear in the group’s performance as well – the songs sounded very tight, and the whole performance came very naturally.

The second support of the evening was A Loss For Words, who like the headliners to follow had travelled all the way from the US state of Massachusetts. The band worked their way through a set showcasing offerings from their recent release No Sanctuary, as well as some older tracks and an enjoyable cover of The Jackson 5’s ‘I Want You Back’. Vocalist Matt Arsenault has a unique vocal delivery, and sings with a great passion in his voice, notably on songs like ‘Mount St Joseph’. He was ably backed up by a duo of confident guitarists, and although drummer Lee Preston is only filling in on a temporary basis, his performance is solid. A Loss For Words are one of those bands who have really grown through the DIY scene, so with the backing of a larger label, expect to hear much more from them in the coming year.

Set List: What The Hell is a Gigawatt?, Stuck In The Middle, On A Saturday, Prepare To Be Digitally Manipulated, Catastrophe, Heaven Wasn’t Built To Hold Me, Sweet Kerosene, Bada Bing! Wit A Pipe!, Enemy Of The World, Maniac (R.O.D), Just Drive, It Must Really Suck To Be Four Year Strong Right Now, Heroes Get Remembered, Legends Never Die

Encore: One Step At A Time, Wasting Time (Eternal Summer)