Motion City Soundtrack – Irving Plaza – 2/3/2010

Balanced would be a choice word for Motion City Soundtracks February 3rd performance at Irving Plaza. Balanced and phantasmagoric! I was a bit hesitant at first with the recent release of their new album, My Dinosaur Life, worrying that the set would overflow with songs too new to comfortably scream out loud from the crowd… thankfully that wasn’t the case.

These Minneapolis men opened with “Worker Bee,” the first track off the new album, before exploding with energy as frontman Justin Pierre began the band’s big break, “The Future Freaks Me Out,” off their first album I Am the Movie (well, to be technical, it was released about 5 times before Epitaph picked them up).

“We’re just going to play one old song, one new song, one old song, one new, old, new, old new!!!!!” explained Pierre while anxious fans shouted out their requests.

They created the perfect recipe for a scrumptious show: 3 parts old (“Broken Heart,” “This Is For Real” and “When You’re Around”) mixed with 3 parts new (“Delirium,” “@!#?@!,” and my personal favorite of the newbie, “Pulp Fiction”) …profusely stirred under bright lights, garnished with some jokes and small talk and served with a kazoo. Yes. We all had kazoos.

Fast-forward to a baker’s dozen young boys taking the stage clad in prep school sweaters to perform “Fell In Love Without You” ….A capella. Apparently the band came across The Williams Octet’s YouTube video and invited them to share the stage and do the honors. Nice guys, right? Ask anyone who was there and he or she would most likely call it the highlight of the evening – It was absolutely beautiful.

Overall? Brilliant show. Motion City Soundtrack’s high energy, well-balanced set and love and appreciation for their fans makes them one hell of a show to see live.

Check them out at:

www.motioncitysoundtrack.com

motioncitysoundtrack.tumblr.com

And be sure to look for them at this year’s Bamboozle!

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