Four Year Strong headlines 2011 AP Tour

Montrealers got up in arms (in a good way) to welcome Worcester, Massachusetts rock band Four Year Strong, along with Gallows, Title Fight, The Swellers and Sharks for this year’s AP Fall Tour.
La Tulipe was packed with more than 350 fans who were jacked up for a night of music, several “walls of death” and a lot of hardcore dancing. With a sound that can be described as “pop-punk rock with screaming,” Four Year Strong opened with the song “What The Hell Is A Gigawatt?,” getting the crowd successfully riled up.
They played a mix of songs from their 2007 album Rise or Die Trying, their latest album Enemy of the World, released in 2010, and songs from their upcoming album In Some Way, Shape, or Form, set to come out on Nov. 9. Their high-energy 15-song set included a one-song encore, ending the night perfectly with “Wasting Time (Eternal Summer).”
They were supported by Gallows, a hardcore punk group from Watford, England, now fronted by ex-Alexisonfire guitarist/vocalist Wade MacNeil. Earlier in the evening they welcomed 40 or so fans on stage to help sing (read: scream) their final song “Orchestra of Wolves.” The audience was reciprocating the love, and as a special birthday treat for Gallows’ guitarist Laurent “Lags” Barnard, the crowd sang “Bonne fête.”
Gallows were the perfect openers for FYS; they got the crowd pumped up and ready for more with a 10-song set list that left a few ears bleeding (figuratively speaking, of course).
Before Gallows, La Tulipe hosted Title Fight on stage, a four piece band from Kingston, Pennsylvania. Their sound is not unlike that of Taking Back Sunday – only with a bit more screaming – giving them a raw live sound.
Earlier, The Swellers, a punk-rock group from Flint, Michigan, played a collection of their very best, easygoing, catchy beats, but the evening’s openers, Sharks, from Leamington Spa, England, were perhaps the most grateful. They were honoured to be in the company of some of their musical idols, having chosen their band name based on a song by Gallows, “In a Belly of a Shark.” They did their heroes proud, pumping out pop-punk grooves and getting the audience warmed up and on their feet dancing and singing along to their old-school style tunes.
The AP Tour usually includes four or five bands, with genres ranging from pop rock to hardcore punk to metalcore, and is run by the same guys who bring you Alternative Press magazine. It’s been hitting up cities all over North America since 2007 and in the spring of 2010, the tour began circulating twice a year: once in the spring and again in the fall. This year’s show at La Tulipe marked the third time that the AP Tour has visited Montreal since fall 2010 when Bring Me the Horizon headlined.