Motion City Soundtrack. Birmingham Academy 2, 28.03.10
I’m not sure it’s even worth talking about the opening acts for MCS tonight. Neither Jenny Owen Youngs or Free Energy did much to warm up the crowd. Neither said much, you couldn’t hear the vocals and they just didn’t seem to fit with MCS. I know it’s nice to have some diversity but the support didn’t seem at all fitting. Should it have been a hot summers day at a festival both would be great, but tonight the crowd were impatient and pretty displeased and eager to get on with the show.
‘Attractive Today’ kicked off the sold out show and front man Justin was positively brimming with excitement. MCS are one of those bands who people have a very personal relationship with and it seemed like the crowd were as pleased to welcome the band back as the band were to be over here. They moved quickly through the set, barely stopping to catch their breath performing all the crowd pleasers including ‘The Future Freaks Me Out,’ ‘This is For Real’ and ‘When You’re Around,’ racking up an impressive 17 tracks before returning for a 2 song encore. It’s clear that MCS haven’t lost their passion to perform after so many years playing together and were keen to show off their new material. As ever the sound was fairly poor and sounded extra ‘tinny’ but the crowd didn’t seem to mind too much and were filled with passion and energy. Every song was a singalong and you just had to look at the fan’s faces to see the lyrics personified as if they had taken these words and made them their own. The set finished up with ‘Everything is Alright’ and I don’t think there was a pair of lungs that were not worn out.
Libby