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Let's get right into it.

Arrrgh, more shittastic pop-rock opening. The Long Island underground media slobbers over the meat of Bandcamp's lead singer like he's fucking Chris Conley in 1999 just because the kid is 16 and supposedly "showcases an astonishingly mature writing style." I guess the purposeful irony surrounding the stereotypical line of "I saw you on the TV, heard you on the radio" is astonishingly mature. I may sound like I have a personal vendetta against him, but it's just wrong to see safe and overly predictable power-pop gain widespread acknowledgement like it was the second coming of Christ. Whatever, at least they weren't sloppy.

Luckily, Triple Crown's recent signing As Tall As Lions were there to soothe my anger with some emotion-tinged rock, all wrapped up in a mid-to-down-tempo frame. It wasn't spectacular, but it was a good change from the other openers, plus the drummer had crazy energy for the music that was playing. They closed with a fun version of Neil Young's "Keep on Rockin' in the Free World."

Tripside showed a lot of promise when they came out on stage playing the opening of "Hells Bells." But alas, I was tricked into thinking I may have gotten some more classic rock when I really got something out of the early 90s heavy pop-rock explosion. There was some occasional guitar work that was worthy of head-nodding but on a scale from one to awesome it kind of sucked...

but the year-end Keyboard Fest 2003 finally kicked off with The Reunion Show. They played a mix of favorites like "Television," "Art of Nothing," "On a Scale from One to Awesome (You're Pretty Great)," all with Mark leading the charge perfectly, and then some new songs, which are overall pretty mercurial in their emotions, but definitely have some significantly darker overtones (think Pinkerton). The drummer, Skully, has said a lot of it will sound like Joy Division and Depeche Mode; I'd say this comparison isn't too far off. If I heard correctly from the bassist himself (ex-Count the Stars), it was his first show with the band but he didn't look at all nervous, unless you count letting the crowd sloppily finger your bass sometimes being nervous. He had this consistently huge grin on his face and was always screaming at his section of the crowd, leaning into it, or just diving onto us, singing along, whatever it took to energize the set. The other new member, a guitarist, played well too. It was the first fluid set I'd seen that day and set things up perfectly for...

Motion City Soundtrack. Justin came out on the stage by himself to play the first verse of "Back to the Beat," before the rest of the band filed on stage and went right into "Cambridge," with every member just fucking losing it and flying all over the stage. The energy was maximized, a state of affairs that would set the precendent for the rest of the set. As soon as it ended, the crowd heard the open riffing of "Shiver," and as expected, the tempo of the set was temporarily restrained for it, but still flowed flawlessly. They played just about the entire I Am the Movie album from there in random order, only minus one or two songs, "Autographs & Apologies" and "1000 Paper Cranes" if I'm not mistaken. They also played "Throwdown" and a new song that they said would be on an upcoming split. For most of the set, the entire crowd was singing along to each and every word, as Justin performed his robot dance and varied staccato hand/arm motions as he sang. "Don't Call it a Comeback," inarguably their most energetic song, had everyone in the room in the same state, as Jesse kicked in the air nearly doing a handstand on his moog. "Mary Without Sound" was played remarkably pinpoint, capturing the melancholic mood of the song, with the quick drum fills spot on; definitely the best song of the night.

There aren't enough words in the English language to describe how energetic, how flawless the performance is given, how flat-out good MCS really is live. My friend that came with me hates almost everything "punk"-related and even admitted they were pretty good. It doesn't matter who is opening - if you're given the chance, see them.



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    Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, June 26, 2004 at 8:59 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    mcs is the best. justin is a pretty cool guy. he doesn't wash his hair.

    Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, January 18, 2004 at 1:27 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    what label is the split coming out and what Limebeck song do they cover?

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, January 16, 2004 at 3:18 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    "Motion city Soundtrack? saw them live and lets just say Sugarcult kicked their asses. nuff said"

    uhh no

    Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, January 15, 2004 at 6:03 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    "since when does motion city soundtrack have anything to do with punk?"

    what does it matter. theyre shitty anyway.

    Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, January 14, 2004 at 2:09 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    Motion city Soundtrack? saw them live and lets just say Sugarcult kicked their asses. nuff said

    Posted by ashton on 2004-01-14 05:39:31
    My Score:

    hahahahaha. if the mcs->dreamworks deal didn't work out, how come dreamworks sent out free tickets to a CONCERT on the blink 182 show mcs is opening? atleast the envelope said dreamworks, and as far as i know, blink 182 does not have any connections with dreamworks..

    explain that to me, scott.

    Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, January 14, 2004 at 3:52 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    lions are not that tall

    Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, January 14, 2004 at 2:19 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    Why isn't Motion city soundtrack Huge?
    Oh wait, I forgot they're on Epitaph.

    Damn good band!

    Posted by blaubs21 on 2004-01-14 00:03:06
    My Score:

    As Tall As Lions, MCS...same bill? dammit!!! i've always wanted to ATAL, and having MCS play would've been even better.

    also i found out it scares many people when you know the words to the Limbeck cover at the MCS show. yea.

    Posted by rxbandito24 on 2004-01-13 23:17:11
    My Score:

    Sounds like an amazing show, MCS and Reunion show.. I'm really anxious to see what the new line up is like. I also can'wait to see MCS again.. Don't you just love the moog rock?

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, January 13, 2004 at 10:56 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    "saw this band live at the troc in philly. they were horrible. a bunch of old guys thinking that theyre cool.. and one of em even tried to do a handstand on his equalizer. now thats punk. to make matters worse, an article was just written in the school newspaper about how this band is " just fantastic!" by some girl who would like to be punk. she cant even be pop-punk.. almost pathetic. "

    since when does motion city soundtrack have anything to do with punk?

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, January 13, 2004 at 8:09 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    has anyone seen the video for "the future freaks me out"? it's pretty hilarious.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, January 13, 2004 at 6:12 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    mcs are reciculously good live. the first time i heard their songs was when i saw them live. awesome.

    their keyboardist is not sane.

    -benz

    Posted by i-type-poorly on 2004-01-13 18:06:52
    My Score:

    "some girl who would like to be punk. she cant even be pop-punk.."

    ooooh burn?

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, January 13, 2004 at 6:01 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    saw this band live at the troc in philly. they were horrible. a bunch of old guys thinking that theyre cool.. and one of em even tried to do a handstand on his equalizer. now thats punk. to make matters worse, an article was just written in the school newspaper about how this band is " just fantastic!" by some girl who would like to be punk. she cant even be pop-punk.. almost pathetic.

    anyway, to make a long story short. the suck ass hemroids.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, January 13, 2004 at 5:42 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    mcs has "the future freaks me out". other than that their songs are fucking stupid and crappy.

    Posted by Jesse on 2004-01-13 17:19:07
    My Score:

    MCS used to front small shows in Minneapolis. Now they're blowin' up bigtime. Crazy.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, January 13, 2004 at 4:15 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    this show really suprised me. i walked in with a "isn't this band supposed to be pretty good or something?" in my mind and walked out with the cd. they put on one of the best sets of the year.

    Posted by i-type-poorly on 2004-01-13 16:07:24
    My Score:

    MCS and Limbeck!?! Damn, the best news of the day came out of a review comment!

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, January 13, 2004 at 3:34 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    mwahahaha, they played both the limbeck cover, AND don't call it a comeback in milwaukee

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, January 13, 2004 at 3:33 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    straylight run is awful

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, January 13, 2004 at 3:11 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    i was looking foward to going to that show but then straylight run announced their openers for their show that same night and moneen was one of them. Now ive seen moneen and mcs both b4, and i like them both a lot but well moneen is alot better live. So i went to that show and i wasnt disapointed at all bc moneen rocked, and armor for sleep put on a good set for the second time in 3 days that i saw them, and well straylight run was ok, atleast jesse lacey came out and played play crack the sky with john.

    Posted by FortyMinutesWest on 2004-01-13 15:06:20
    My Score:

    I really can't stand The Reunion Show.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, January 13, 2004 at 2:00 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    shitty review man...

    Posted by maverick on 2004-01-13 13:56:48
    My Score:

    That new song is a Limbeck cover. The two bands are putting out a split 7", each covering the other's songs.

    And I'm pissed, because they didn't play the Limbeck cover *or* Mary Without Sound in Chicago. Fuckers.

    -Scott

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, January 13, 2004 at 1:52 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    mcs kills. also, i'm pretty sure that song 'throwndown' is on their split with shiatzi, which came out some time ago.

    cburst

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, January 13, 2004 at 1:24 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    www.thisistheend.org

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