Motion City Soundtrack Band • Page 118

I should mention the bands I've driven to the coast for are older and I feel like I have to catch them while I can. Descendents, Sparks, etc.

 

yeah, the ones i've flown out to california for are bucket list bands that i didn't know would ever tour to Utah. Owen, American Football, Quicksand, The Anniversary, etc.

 

Furthest drive I made for just a concert and not a festival or flying was Cleveland to Boston for the Have Heart reunion shows in 2019. That was between a 9 and 10 hour drive. Cleveland is so close to several other cities that you have tons of options for shows anywhere from an hour up to 7 hours to Philly or NYC. Between the shows in Cleveland proper and nearby it’s a great area to live for shows. Living in Chicago now we mostly stay here for shows. We’ve done Milwaukee, Iowa City, and Detroit but not very often.

 

Your reasoning is super solid, for sure. Safety and financial concerns are huge limiting factors for what people prioritize. I've always traveled to shows with a few people so we're more able to spread out the costs, crash at people's houses, etc..

You'll have to excuse the long-winded next bunch of stuff below the string of dashes. You got me thinking of what it's like to live in ND which has already been really on my mind lately. I started typing something short and then a bunch more thoughts came out. Skip it unless you're super curious about a look into my thoughts on the broad-brush-stroke North Dakotan mindset. I typed it all out to help me put voice to thoughts and I figured I'd leave it in case anyone else was curious.

Last month I drove 3 hours to see a show of a bunch of (really awesome) locals, accidentally met up with some friends, and then I left from that meetup at 2:30am. Home by 6am. Back at work in the studio by 10am. Upon further review I can definitely point to scarcity (more about that below) as the reason for feeling it necessary to do all that. Those locals don't play around much (because there are only a few venues in the state that prioritize original music) and to have them all on one bill is super rare. I was lucky I went, too, because those friends I ran into all work in the service industry so they rarely all have the same night off. So I had "no choice" and did whatever I needed to do in order to meet my priorities.

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Living in ND definitely weird. The space and less concentrated population creates a scarcity in a lot of things (as an example: the town I grew up in had one trustworthy electrician and three grocery stores run by the same family/company - and that sort of lack of options ran through most services/businesses in the town so you didn't really have a lot of options if your needs weren't being met) and a sense of obligation that I think is not as present in a lot of other places. I might be completely wrong - I spent the early formative years of my life in one place - but I don't get the same awareness of scarcity and obligation from a lot of other people.

I'm discovering things in running my recording studio that I think the scarcity and obligation has build into people's minds and mindsets. It ends up creating a lot of people who don't have real tangible experience with the things they're voting for/against so then they're left to let that scarcity (which manifests as either gratitude or fear) and obligation (to either "making the world better" or maintaining "the way things have always been") to create boogiemen in their minds from a really young age. Most people default to fear and preserving the way something is (because it's hard to imagine "better" but easy to imagine "worse") when the scarcity is as tangible as it can be around here. I think I avoided a lot of that scarcity stuff but a lot of people don't and end up REALLY buying in to fear-based, mal-informed polices, straw-man situations, and pressure from family because "this was good enough for [this person] so it's good enough for you." But this isn't necessarily the place for political discussion so I'll cap it off there.

 

Sending love, I'm in MT!

 

Oh, dang! A quick peek into your bio says Missoula. I've been wanting to get out that way. I've heard it's great.

Furthest west in MT I've been was Anaconda a million years ago as a kid. Other than that, I was in Red Lodge a few years back and it was awesome. Parts of MT are truly beautiful and every time I've gotten west of Billings I just feel like I need to go back and go get lost in nature for a while.

 

I just found out that MCS plays at 8:15 and ends around 9:30 and I am so happy.

 

I drove from MA to DC to see Gaslight and that was the furthest I’ve driven to see a band.

I would say Menzingers I’ve seen the most, prob at least 10 times but I never started an official count. But they love Boston so I’m grateful!

 

Wow, this is the emptiest I’ve seen this place this close to show time. All Get Out is supposed to play at 7:15. It’s not dead or anything. But generally the pit section is filled by now. It’s weird to have breathing room here on the side.

 

Yeah the show I went to at terminal 5 wasnt nearly filled as the story so far / Joyce manor show at the same venue. I enjoyed the extra room tho

 

So the website fucked up and said doors were both at 6 and 7. So I called the box office to verify which was accurate. I was told it was 6 and the show started at 7. It’s almost 7:30 and nothing so far. I fear due to their incompetence someone decided to push it back an hour. Which fucking blows dick. I was looking forward to that extra hour of sleep. Now instead I’m just starting here like an idiot with nothing to really do. Thanks house of blues, you fucks.

 

Okay, I guess they pushed it back 30 minutes. The comedian is on now.

 

I feel so bad for Justin. His voice is shot.

 

Like shot as in I shouldn’t go see them in a couple months?

 

no he just lost his voice a couple days ago. He’s trying to tone his vocals down right now to preserve them as opposed to canceling any dates.

 

Oh thank god

 

I was watching a friends Instagram stories from the Boston show last week and you could hear it then, too. Poor guy.

 

Yeah he sounded sick when I saw them 6/22. He did his best and honestly the raspiness added a cool take to some of the songs haha

 

No. It was still an awesome show. And his voice improved as the set progressed. I appreciate them still doing the full set even with that going on. It wasn’t great at times, but not as bad as that one Thrice show on the Vheissu tour where Dustin was basically mumbling.

 

Even with Justin’s voice being down, it was an amazing show. So much fun, so many just stone cold jams.

 

Funny because I blew my voice out singing along to them last weekend

 

Only time I saw them was 2006 (OKGO opened) at the glasshouse in Pomona, CA. Same thing happened... voice had just got shot and barely made it through the show, but finished nonetheless.

Was walking out afterwards and spotted him headed to the bus, so walked up and asked for a photo and he just waved me and my then gf up. Was so surreal, didn't let anyone else who was outside on. We talked maybe 2-3 min, him just barely using his voice, but so thankful for that moment.

Edit:
What a great setlist... Motion City Soundtrack Setlist at The Glass House, Pomona

Only got into them after hearing/seeing the video for "The Future Freaks Me Out" while working at Tilly's lol

 

That’s fucking awesome! He seems like such a great guy. Really an underrated songwriter when it comes to being so open and how at with his lyrics dealing with addiction and mental health issues. He clearly puts it all into the songs and it really helps their catalog hold all the way up.

 

OK Go opening for them seems wild haha

 

The Plain White T's and The Spill Canvas were also openers that show. The Format were other openers later in the tour dates.