Seaway, Four Year Strong make a tour stop in Cleveland

Adam Shoji, bassist for Seaway, performs on stage at the Agora Ballroom.

Adrian Leuthauser

Bodies tumbled across the sea of concert-goers as fans crowd-surfed towards the stage at the Agora Ballroom, in hopes of reaching one of the bands during Four Year Strong’s recent tour date in Cleveland.

Four Year Strong is currently performing around the U.S. in honor of the anniversary of their freshman album “Rise or Die Trying.” Seaway, who is touring with Four Year Strong, is getting ready to release their sophomore album “Vacation.”

“I mean the whole record from making it, to the way it came out, is a bit different,” said lead vocalist for Seaway, Ryan Locke. “We did a lot of demoing and pre-production for this so I think it’s a lot more cohesive record because of that.”

Seaway performed a few songs off their upcoming record, and despite being released back in early July, almost everyone already had the new song lyrics memorized. Seaway also opened up with fan-favorite, “Slam” and was greeted by the echo of fans singing the main chorus, “everything is cool, man,” inside the cramped space.

“For ‘Something Wonderful’ and ‘Apartment’ the crowd has always been really good, ‘Curse me out’ is more of a chill song though,” Locke said. “So, it’s a lot of fun for us to play. It’s not a song we’re expecting the crowd to be jumping off for, but it’s still been really good, but for different reasons.”

Taking a breather from the energy-packed performance, Locke brought out a keyboard to accompany the riffs and heavy bass of the song “Lula on the Beach,” and said “I learned how to play this yesterday, so we’ll see how this goes!” Some fueled fans responded saying, “own that keyboard!” Locke and the rest of Seaway laughed and transitioned into their next song.

Despite Seaway having the occasional sing-along vibe, fans still formed circle pits and mosh pits as sweat-drenched bodies collided with one another and flipped midair as they leaped from stage, all while Locke sang about heartbreak, love and striving to be happy.

Seaway has a long tour ahead of them as this is just the first week of a two-month tour. Nonetheless, Locke has high hopes for the rest of the tour.

“It’s always fun doing a tour where you’ve never been to,” he said. “We’ve done tours across the states a couple times now so it’s cool to get to do some cities we’ve never been to.”

Adrian Leuthauser is a general assignment reporter. Contact him at a[email protected].