17 September 2012
After the mammoth 4 albums 2 nights series, Motion City Soundtrack promptly returned to London to showcase their latest LP Go. Now picking decent supporting tour bands has never been MCS’s greatest asset. With tonight’s lower bill bands names such as Me and Now, Now, I wasn’t hopeful of a shift in fortunes.
Me
Yet Me started rather brightly, with their expansive sound which was as equally bombastic as it was eclectic. Slow building melodies rising to epic distorted crescendo’s backed throughout by a soft and smooth vocal which has an definite operatic streak. An impressive set from this aussie band which has definitely perked much interest. One to keep tabs on for sure!
Now, Now
With the sucess of band 1 expectations were high for the second of the night. As it transpires, we needn’t have got excited as Now, Now were about as bland a band there possible could be. A female fronted band playing soft chorus verses with monotone vocals with lazy noise rock choruses. Melodies were missing presumed absent, as were actual singing. A dull and lifeless set. Business as usual was restored.
Motion City Soundtack
So soon after such a saturating in Motion City’s Soundtrack, It was a nice change to hit the shuffle button as they (not suprisingly) aired a huge variety of material picking out their best tunes.
Justin Pierre
Focus on their latest album was fleeting at best, playing only a handful including the lyrically biographical “Timelines“, rollicking album opener “Circuits & Wires“, mellowed out “Son of A Gun” and the uplifting pop single “True Romance“.
In distinct contrast to their album shows, lead singer Justin Pierre was much more talkative, rambling incessently between tunes providing cominc relief at every turn. Within the well rounded setlist the standouts were the punchy numbers of My Dinosaur Life; “Disappear“, “Worker Bee” and poppy offerings of Commit this to Memory; “L.G.FAUD”, “Everything is Alright” and the set closer, the melancolic “Hold Me Down“. The latter bringing the night to beautiful and sombre close, nicely fitting the monday night scheduling.
MCS prove yet again they are one of the forefront pop/punk bands on the planet!
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