For Massachusetts punks of all stripes, the annual Skatefest at the Palladium in Worcester has become the most dependable way to start off the school year with a bang. This year’s line-up was the biggest and most eclectic to date: the annual Plea for Peace Take Action Tour kicked things off with Thursday and the (International) Noise Conspiracy a week ago last Friday, the underground hip-hop whiz kids of the Def Jux posse mingled with pop-minded rockers Phantom Planet and Superdrag on Saturday, and party-metal jester Andrew W.K. headlined a stellar day of hardcore with Glassjaw and Boy Sets Fire on Sunday. When I stopped by on Sunday afternoon, a light drizzle was putting a damper on the half-pipe action going on in the parking lot outside the club, but a procession of local punk heroes kept things rockin’ inside.

Watching the Patriots whomp the Jets while having a few beers at the aptly named Bar Next Door before his band hit the stage, Reach the Sky frontman Ian Larrabee joked that after 18 months on the road, he was getting ready to retire from hardcore. Say it ain’t so, Ian: riling up the big stage crowd with dance-floor faves like "This Sadness Alone" and "Maybe Next Year," the band sounded as passionate as ever. During "The Gift of Stern Angels," a standout track from their recent EP The Transient Hearts (Victory), Ian kept the jock-rock theme alive by chucking a football into the mosh pit and starting a game of "kill the guy with the ball."

Unearth opened with the fearsome new "Endless," and their carefully wrought hardcore/speedmetal fusion had the pit seething from start to finish. Scissorfight delivered a less frenetic but equally powerful brand of menace, showing off a couple of new tunes alongside standards like "Acid for Blood" and "Outmotherfucker the Man." And just so the kids in the crowd would go home educated, frontman Ironlung gave a short lecture on the infamous GG Allin before the band’s signature cover of "Drink Fight and Fuck."

With two days to go before the release of their devastating new Endnote (Equal Vision), the Hope Conspiracy drew an overflow crowd to the small stage. The whole floor turned into a pit during the opening "Fallen," and the room got stickier as the stage dives got more frequent. Frontman Kevin Baker dedicated the classic "Divinity Sickness" to "all the Catholic priests out there who like to touch little boys," and the band backed him up with hardcore so propulsive it barely needed a scapegoat.

(Sean has more to say about Unearth and the Hope Conspiracy in "Cellars by Starlight," in Music.)