On Sept. 28, a Sunday night in which the average person is sleeping or preparing for a day of work, music lovers from all over were out at the Motion City Soundtrack concert at Toad’s Place in New Haven, Connecticut. It was a night where Joshua Cain, Justin Pierre, Jesse Johnson, Matthew Taylor and Tony Thaxton played songs off their “I Am The Movie”, “Commit This To Memory” and “Even If It Kills Me” albums.
Their fifteen song-set started with an upbeat “Can’t Finish What We Started”. Lead singer, Justin Pierre, was definitely sporting a different look. As opposed to his normal thick-framed glasses and spiked hair, he had a scruffy beard with straight hair slightly above his shoulders and contact lenses. My friends and I actually thought for a second that MCS had replaced him because we didn’t recognize him at first. His looks might have been different but he still had the same fantastic voice that he’s always had, which was a complete relief. Within the next hour and a half, they played new songs like “Broken Heart”, “Fell In Love Without You”, “This Is For Real” and “Calling All Cops”. And they made sure to include some older tunes like “L.G. Fuad”, “The Future Freaks Me Out” and “Point Of Extinction”.
There was an amazing band to audience relationship. The audience was so ecstatic about seeing Motion City Soundtrack and the group could definitely tell. The audience’s energy reflected through the bands performance. There was much crowded-surfing going on, so much to the point that Justin made a little safety speech saying, “Don’t hurt the smaller people! We want to have fun and that’s totally cool. We’re watching!”
Overall, Motion City Soundtrack is a pretty amazing group to see in concert. They’re full of energy and have very catchy songs. This was my second time seeing them in concert and I have to say that if you haven’t checked them out yet, you best be putting them on your “To Do List”. Unfortunately, their tour with Hit The Lights, Chiodos and Person L has come to an end but keep checking their Myspace (www.myspace.com/motioncitysoundtrack) for further information about when they’ll be coming to a venue near you!
