Motion City Soundtrack Acoustic Show - 8/6/10

With this title it seems rather inappropriate not to have a Motion City Soundtrack post...

Recently I bought tickets to the Motion City Soundtrack/Say Anything show. I received an email about an acoustic show that Motion City Soundtrack was going to do for Minneapolis fans who bought presale tickets. It was short notice but I arrived at 7th Street Entry early to secure a good spot for the show. As Will and I waited in line Justin Pierre came outside the stage door and inquired if anyone had a 9 volt battery to spare. It was quite random and awesome. That also marked the first time I've ever seen him, having never seen his band live before.

The wait wasn't too bad and pretty soon the doors opened. I got a place with a good view in the second row of the audience. Soon Justin Pierre and Josh Cain arrived on stage. They also had Claudio with them to keep the rhythm. The banter was astounding. I haven't seen such great banter since a Tegan and Sara concert. Justin was talking about his nervousness and mocking the fact that he was rocking out on an acoustic guitar. It was epic to the maximum. He was also pretending to kick Claudio.

Justin with Claudio in the Background

There was a heartwarming moment when Justin announced that his father was in the audience. He said he wrote the song Time Turned Fragile from his perspective. Justin's voice was impeccable by the end. He was also happy that he finally remembered the lyrics to one of the songs he played. He stated, "The curse has been broken."

Justin aside from the vocals was doing a great job playing the keyboard parts on his guitar and his solos. However he said he couldn't play the guitar. Silly Justin! The show however came to a close much too soon for me. They said on the email that is was going to be a short show so that kept my disappointment at a minimum.The set list was a great mix of songs from their albums. I loved the inclusion of Everything is Alright. I'm so used to hearing that song as electric rather than acoustic, just like the rest of their songs. However it sounded phenomenal acoustically.The Future Freaks Me Out was a particularly good closer. The audience participation was excellent. The band appeared visibly pleased.This show was a great one! They had a tough act to follow because I recently saw Something Corporate. They definitely were just as good! I sometimes feel as if I have a bias against acoustic if it isn't done right. However Motion City Soundtrack can rock just as much acoustically!

Will's Point of View:

The experience of attending this concert was a bit like sitting in on one of Motion City Soundtrack's rehearsals--in atmosphere only. The performances themselves were of excellent quality despite Justin's often stated nervousness and forgetfulness in tuning his guitar before "Fell in Love Without You." The tuning didn't matter, though, as instead of playing guitar, Justin ran around the stage kicking dramatically--at one point almost striking Claudio in the head. He did finally get his guitar tuned and even show off his "sweet-ass G." This immediately established the lighthearted mood of the concert.

Another significant part of that mood was Claudio himself. Introduced as being there simply because he had nothing to do that day, Claudio added to thoroughly non-serious atmosphere by giving us a "bonus shake" at the end of "My Favorite Accident" (an unrehearsed song Justin had to hum to Claudio to make sure he knew it). Josh also added to the humorous atmosphere almost acting as a comic foil for Justin, at one point explaining to him how the microphone in his guitar worked when Justin could not figure out how to stop feedback from happening. It was still not entirely successful, as at the end of "Everything Is Alright," Justin did it again prompting him to scream "what the shit?!?!"

Aside from occasional feedback, the band's antics did not interfere with the quality of the music. Justin's vocals were very strong and kept improving through the whole concert perhaps due to becoming less nervous or just getting warmed up. He also made excellent use of audience participation (not just using us to remember the lyrics) in "Everything is Alright" by having us sing back "yeah, everything is alright" to his "tell me that it's alright." Hearing "Everything Is Alright" played acoustically and without drums (excepting Claudio's brilliant time keeping of course!) was quite interesting and a rather pleasant surprise for me as, unlike Amber, I might actually have a bias in favor of acoustic performances.

Setlist

Fell In Love Without You

Pulp Fiction

A Lifeless Ordinary (Need a Little Help)

Everything is Alright My Favorite Accident

Time Turned Fragile

Disappear

The Future Freaks Me Out

Video Credit to JSRD