Four Year Strong was headlining at the First Unitarian Church in Philadelphia on January 14th, 2010. It was my brother’s birthday, but I made the last second decision to go to the show and promised to celebrate his birthday that weekend. The First Unitarian Church is a notoriously small venue, and that night it was particularly packed, and seemed to be poorly ventilated. I happened to be standing near the thermostat, where the temperature climbed throughout the night due to the mess of bodies, and it was humid as hell. Just as Four Year Strong started their set, the fire alarm went off. It wasn’t exactly clear what triggered it, though given the heat of the crowd I had my suspicions. There was no apparent fire, but the fire department confirmed that the show needed to be shut down and the basement evacuated. Outside the venue, everyone hung out unsure if it might resume. The band then directed everyone to a nearby park, where they played a few acoustic songs. I watched the set from a jungle gym which provided me a great view of those few songs. As someone who is only 5’3″, it was the best vantage point I ever had while watching live music. When they next returned to Philadelphia, everyone at the January 14th show was given a free ticket to the new tour.
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