The Starting Line, Four Year Strong, Permanent Me, Sound the Alarm
Lupo's in Providence, RI
September 15, 2007

A few beach balls went flying as Sound the Alarm took the stage. The crowd was relatively small (the floor area was full,b ut not much else), which worked for me since I had a good spot to see the band. They played a really entertaining set, performing songs off Stay Inside. The songs were tight, making good use out of their vocalists, and the songs were catchy enough to pretty much instantly win over the crowd. I noticed that the band stood really close together, though they still had enough room to rock out when needed (which they did often).

I missed the first half of Permanent Me's set, but I didn't mind because I wasn't too impressed the last time I heard them. They were pretty boring, even though their bassist reminded me of Howard Stern in the looks department. The crowd seemed to politely enjoy them, but they didn't do much for me.

Because Four Year Strong were playing, there were a lot of hardcore people in the crowd (I wouldn't expect to see an Earth Crisis shirt at a Starting Line show). There were also a lot of Worcester looking people at the show, no doubt because the band hails from Worcester. Regardless, Four Year Strong had the crowd in a frenzy from pretty much the moment they took the stage with their pop punk mixed wtih hardcore style of fun. I've been having a hard time getting into their new album, but hearing them live opened my ears to just how good this band is. Their songs were full of sing alongs, pogo parts, mosh parts and a synth player (think Set Your Goals meets A Wilhelm Scream meets New Found Glory meets The Get Up Kids), and 80% of the band was sporting a beard. I was surprised that two fights broke out (one which resulted in two people getting the boot), as their music in no way makes me think of fighting.

Though I'm a big fan of The Starting Line's new album, Direction, I don't really like any of their old stuff. Because of this, I was all that into their set. They had some songs that I enjoyed, but I wasn't into them for the most part. The crowd was stoked to see them, something they made known by the huge reaction to their banner being dropped.

The best part of The Starting Line's set came before they even took the stage, and it had nothing to do with them. About two minutes before the lights went dim, a saw a girl and a guy talking right next to me as I was playing pinball on my phone. A few seconds later, the girl yelled something at him. I looked up as she started to tear up like a dying fountain. He tried comforting her while explaining himself, which led me to believe that he broke up with her, which led me to believe that this dude knows nothing about timing, breaking up with her minutes before a band she (I'm assuming since they were there) enjoyed, most likely ruining the band for her.

Written by: RF
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