Day two of Four Chord began on a hot and sunny day. I was actually surprised when I walked in the venue on how well the crew cleaned up from the previous day. All trash seemed to be picked up, the field was in great condition, all vendors seemed to be okay, and the stages looked good as new. I had to chuckle a bit as well, when I seen security had a list on each stage with ratings of 1-10 on crowd surfing probabilities.

Four Chord official merch tent filling orders.

Mallory Run, out of Pennsylvania, hit the stage to open the Day. The hard hitting, adrenaline providing band are more of an emo rock type of style. The band took the opportunity to play a song never sung before and the crowd seemed to enjoy it, with a good sized applause when the band asked if it was good. Dressed in Pittsburgh Pirate like uniforms, the four piece band was a great way to open the day for the early going crowd.

A festival attendee photographed on day 2 in a banana costume.

Look Out Loretta began to play almost immediately after Mallory Run so the crowd quickly migrated from stage 2 to stage 1. Pumped up from the first set, the crowd let the band know they were there to support them. When the band mentioned how great of a crowd they were, the crowd replied with a “so are you!” Band member Josh wasn’t there, as he was in tour with another band, so the band had someone they were familiar with take his place. For a fill in spot, he did pretty well fitting in. After a brief conversation about the night before, it was announced that lead guitarist Mike, was singing in a show for the first time.

Spaced, the only hardcore metal band for the festival, made sure the fans knew it by trying to get them to head bang the entire set. Lead signer, Lexi Reyngoudt, said early on during their performance, “you only get one chance to move like your at a a hardcore concert!” It was at the point where Lexi asked to form a circle pit, that today would be the heavier day of of the two. Rishi spoke about this day being a complete 180 on day one, bit it was not until you actually witnessed the feel of the event that how much of a difference it was. Self labeled far out hardcore, the band jumped, stomped, and head banged their way through their set, making some new fans along the way.

M.A.G.S. took the stage and immediately was able to feed the into very high energy from Spaced. It was fun to see lead singer, Elliot Mags, get onto the huge speakers in the photo pit area and sing to the crowd from there. The alternative/ Indie rock band formed in 2015, just put out a record called Destroyer. It was evident, as I watched their set, that the band doesn’t sugarcoat things in their lyrics. They like being authentic and real. The band is signed by Four Chord sponsor, Smartpunk.

Heart Attack Man was next. The band revealed while talking to the crowd that this was their second time on playing at a baseball stadium, this time being inside the stadium and not outside. New record out called Freak of Nature. Much like Spaced, the band asked for a circle pit, and once again, it did not disappoint. Security had their hands full as crowd surfing seemed to be constant, with fans enjoying themselves. The Cleveland, Ohio based band, embarked on their first headlining tour: Thoughtz & Prayerz Across North America, in 2022 and have been making music since 2013.

A female crowd surfer reaches security, where during Four Chord

Sincere Engineer, based out of Chicago made their way onto their stage and instantly I was taken back. Lead singer, Deanna Delos, has a really gravelly and gritty voice that brought a new energy to the venue. Normally a solo artist, while on tour, Belos brings her a band along to bring her music to life live. The band played a few songs, and the proceeded to ask if there was any questions. Someone asked if they could marry her, to which she replied ” I don’t believe in marriage!” One thing I loved about their set was that there was not much talking. They just played one song after another. They seen it as a way to get more music out, and not waste that time talking. In the brief amount if time they did talk, Deanna said that the lineup was “so cool for them to be on”, as it had their favorite bands on it.

Dave Hause & The Mermaid followed in Sincere Engineer’s footsteps, Hause played one song after another. In a funny twist from yesterday, where a one of the bands sang a hate song about my home state of New Jersey, the band sang a love song about NJ. Encouraging the crowd to clap and sing along with any songs they knew, The band played “Dirty Fucker” got the crowd raging. Dave, like Sincere Engineer, plays solo and as a band. The band aspect is called The Mermaid. The Philadelphia, Pennsylvania native was great with interacting with the crowd when they did pause for a moment. His set was energetic and fun. One you just couldn’t t take your eye off of.

Punchline began set by asking if anyone had a joke. Someone in the crowd replied, “No, but I am waiting for Punchline to actually perform!” This led to a sting by the drummer and the band laughing as it caught the crowd and the band off guard. With that, the set began and the crowd was electric. Formed in 1998, this was one of the older bands on the docket to take the stage. But age meant nothing when they performed. Punchline was just as energetic as the younger groups prior to them. Midway through the set, they announced that they’d be at the dunk tank and challenged the crowd to dunk them. They also announced they wanted to make their song “Keystone” the new state song since legislation is talking about changing the state song.

American football provided another twist for me as their set was entirely different of the entire fest. The group played with in my opinion, really soft easy music that had some jazz and pop undertones. Throughout the set, the pace picked up slightly, but it was a semi nice break from the loudness up to that point. Originally active from 1997 until 2000. They reformed in 2014 and are highly regarded as one of the most important bands of the late 1990s for midwestern emo.

Face To face brought back the rock. The band, out of Southern California, brought heavy drums and guitar riffs. Front row was saying the couldn’t hear them, which was true. In the photo pit I couldn’t hear a thing they were singing. Once out of that area, it was perfect. So naturally, the frontman, Trever Keith, asked for the soundboard to help with the issue as the rest of the band joked that he was just playing the guitar to loud. Formed in 1991, they are also one of the older punk bands to play. Keith was aware of this too, but also was able to joke about it saying that a song from 1996 was “tragically 90s sounding” before playing it. Face To Face was also another band that understood that there wasn’t much room to talk for their set. They’d rather play music that the crowd wanted to hear that speak and waste everyones time.

Streetlight Manifesto was one of the groups I was most excited to see on the schedule for the fest. I seen them a few years back in Cincinnati with the now non existent Bunbury Music Festival. I loved them then, as most of the band is woodwind and brass instruments like Keep Flying. Since then, they’ve only climbed into stardom.  They have it figured on how to balance singing and playing the instruments to a high energy beat song after song. Based on the amount of hands in the air and dancing, the crowd would agree. The 45 minute set was a never ending saga of amazing beats. You never lost interest in what was going on. As a player of the woodwinds myself, and being how hot it was, I was awestruck by how well they managed to keep the energy. To be able to keep playing the instruments, dance, and sing almost non stop the entire set is no easy task. Sadly, Streetlight Manifesto, a band who began in 2002, made a post on Instagram at the start of 2023, where they stated that they were slowly approaching the end of their endeavor.

Legendary punk rock band, Alkaline trio hit the stage after a massive ovation for Streetlight Manifesto. Founded in 1996, the high energy band was also rated a 9 on that scale of crowd surfers I spoke of earlier. The security joked with some of the crowd about that rating and said from here on out, it will be exhausting. As expected, it most definitely inetly was. Alkaline Trio showed everyone why they are such a force to be reckoned with, moving from hit song to hit song that many of the crowd knew and were excited for. Even if the vocals were not exactly on point, the Four Chord crowd was there to mask the issue if it ever arose. I scanned the area from time to time away from the stage, and just seeing fans with their arms in the air, singing along, and dancing/jumping in their spots was all I needed to know exactly how this set went for the crowd.

From the moment The Interrupters graced the stage, they had everyone’s undivided attention. The set began with the band coming onto the stage and playing a bit of an intro before lead vocalist, Aimee Allen, came onto stage with a thunderous applause. After the opening song the rest of the set was light with colorful lights that went well with each song. Much like Aimee and her band, the crowd fed off that energy and began dancing around as well. Beach balls were bouncing around and crowd surfers continued to make security get their moneys worth for the night. I loved how the band had platforms to get up on to for people in the back see. One thing I noticed as well was how engaging Aimee was with her own band mate’s. Fan’s knew every word to every song, singing them loud and proud. In a short pause to talk to the crowd, the band jokingly apologized for the day prior and those storms. Saying that they are cursed when they come to Pittsburgh, and always bring something like a sickness to bands playing with them or bad weather to the area. During the song, “Raised By Wolves“, the crowd would howl like a wolf with the lyrics, “ah woo”. That made for a fun thing to hear. It seemed to be a fan favorite and hearing the entire festival grounds howl all at once was a cool experience live. Near the end of the set, they thanked the fans, as they couldn’t go around and tour without them. 

A couple of Four Chord Festival attendees enjoying themselves with some live music.

Ending Four Chord 9 was The Gaslight Anthem. Everyone came over to stage 1, as it was time to begin the breakdown of stage 2. The 15 song setlist provided hit songs like “The ’59 Sound”, “Great Expectations”, and “Handwritten”. The Gaslight Anthem spoke about how awesome it was to have bands like Face to Face and Dave Hause play on a showbill on the same night as them. How those are just two of the bigger names in the genre that played on Day 2, and what this fest means to them and the punk rock music industry. Also mentioning the day one acts. Getting to see all of these bands in one day or in two days is something special. Some fans were seen leaving early, presumably to beat any traffic that was to come. But a majority of the crowd stayed until the very end, dancing and singing until they couldn’t anymore.

What a completely different two fest days. From the weather to the type of music, not a single thing was the same, except that it happened at no other than Four Chord Music Fest! Rishi, if you are reading this, you did it yet again! All the hard work paid off. Not even a Tornado could stop you from having this amazing festival. To everyone who was involved, (Wild Things Park, the bands and crews, EMS, security, venue and event staff, photographers, bag checkers, ticket scanners, parking assistants, merch and food vendors, and everyone else) we thank you.

Check out some day 2 photos of the bands below:

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