Four Word Cause, a year-old pop rock band from Ames, is back home and performed their first show in town Thursday night at Papa’s Corner, 2430 Lincoln Way.

Over the summer, the rockers toured the country and gained a spot on the Kansas City, Missouri stop of the Vans Warped Tour.

“The temperature was over 100 degrees and we brought a pack of water but that was gone before we even played,” said guitarist JP, of their Warped Tour experience.

The band played a set on the Ernie Ball Stage, which hosts new, upcoming acts.

“It was a great time though. We got to play with many great bands. In the end the show went very well, it wasn’t as nerve-wracking as we had expected,” he said. “It was the biggest stage we had played on and a great atmosphere to play but we were still able to play a very good show.”

The band members describe their sound as a mix between Motion City Soundtrack and Something Corporate. Jason Peterson — JP — Steve Williams, Matthew Dery, Tyler Higdon and Andrew Gates, some of whom are former ISU students, make up the band.

The young band experienced an eventful summer and is planning for an even bigger year in 2009.

Four Word Cause has been fortunate to play with some of their main influences and bands from their childhood.

At Veishea, they won the Battle of the Bands and met the members of Eve 6, a band they grew up listening to. Backstage, they hung out and had a fun conversation, JP said.

JP’s most memorable experience occurred when the band played with The JV Allstars, a pop punk group from Lincoln, Neb.

“We were on tour with them for 10 days and they were very funny guys that were just nonstop,” JP said.

In June, the band lost their lead singer, Austin Reder, for academic reasons. He stayed with the band until they found a new lead singer. In August, Andrew Gates, a Minnesota native, joined. He was previously in The Great Physician before joining Four Word Cause.

Since Gates joined the band they said they’ve been pumping out songs nonstop and have made a lot of progress, JP said.

Lately, the band has been very busy. The members wrote and recorded several new songs. In addition, they traveled to many different recording studios in an attempt to find the perfect location for recording. They believe they found such a place in Minnesota, and they will be heading into the studio to make their new full-length album soon.

Next year the band will be hitting the road again on their first ever national tour titled Winter Tour presented by MidwestCore. The tour kicks off Jan. 3.

The band is planning to use the tour to get their name out and push their new CD. Even after the tour is over, the members of Four Word Cause said they plan to keep touring and are hoping to have a show almost every day next year.

Hear them online:

Listen to Four Word Cause at myspace.com/fourwordcause