Motion City Soundtrack / the Format

live in Cleveland
2006
live show


Review by: ManWithName
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Published on April 11th 2006

The Commit This to Memory Tour made one of its last stops in Cleveland, the lineup at this point being Men, Women, and Children, the Matches, and the Format opening for Motion City Soundtrack. Due to several traffic delays, jams, and accidents, we got in the Agora (much preferred to the House of Blues) right after the Matches had ended.

From the response I heard, MW+C (who I was much a fan of from what I had heard) were surprisingly good, and near everyone hated the Matches. Sloppy was an adjective I heard in the most negative fashion several times.

After talking to the good men from MW+C, we went down into the pit for the Format. Although considering there wouldn't be much of a pit at all for the Format (except the obnoxious fucks that will try to mosh at a Jack Johnson concert, which usually accompanies their inebriation and overweight and damp stature -- which indeed were there, but not out in full force until Motion City), they were great. They have quite a following in Cleveland, and due to the singer Nate's announcement, they hadn't been here "since Switchfoot" -- an announcement that incited a mixed reaction. The band was in fine form; Nate stayed mostly in key, and the crowd was good. It was no hard rock, but for what it was, they were surprisingly fulfilling. The set list included (as far as I can remember, in no particular order):

• Wait, Wait, Wait
• Give It Up
• On Your Porch
• Snails
• This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us [Sparks cover]
• Tune Out
• The First Single

and one or two others. Not much new material, but the Sparks cover was great.

Went back, talked to Shawn from the Matches (who due to his black and white pants was dogged by comments of "BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE" all night). Went back into the office ( I was there with some venue insiders), heard "Attractive Today" and ran out. A girl that was in our entourage was hurt earlier, so we were sent up to the loge, and I switched between the loge and the pit for the show. The crowd was decent; many people seemed like they had just come for the Format and stood around idly, but everyone in the pit was 100% into it. The band played a very tight, energetic pumping set. When I originally heard CTTM, I was thoroughly disappointed by its overmastering and overproduction, and just the quality of the songs seemed too similar. All the songs live, however, complete themselves and bring it back to that raw, pumping, electro-energy sound they had on I Am the Movie. Mostly songs from CTTM were played, but all of them sounded great, and IATM favorites got almost the same reaction surprisingly. "LG FUAD" was one of the biggest sing-alongs I've seen in a while. Not much banter, except for when someone's Sidekick got thrown on stage, to which Justin dissed Pete Wentz ("A Sidekick! Are there any pictures of naked famous rock stars, by any chance?"). A lot of cell phone-holding up during this show. Kind of sickens me, although my girlfriend was pretty pissed I refrained from doing so, considering "Feel the Rain" is one of 'our songs' -- whatever, it's a concert, not a conversation. Anyway -- playlist very rough and out of order -- I apologize for my non-remembering state:

• Attractive Today
• Capital H
• Boombox Generation
• Make Out Kids
• LG FUAD
• Hold Me Down
• Everything Is Alright
• Feel the Rain
• Time Turned Fragile
• Ring in the New Year
• Modern Chemistry
• Indoor Living? / Shiver?
• Future Freaks Me Out

Afterwards, we stuck around while Justin signed autographs, played hackysack (I believe Shawn from the Matches was going to join at one point, but we launched a 'Beetlejuice') and I talked to some guys from MW+C again. Most people left, we talked to Justin and the Format, had some fun in the photbooths with both bands. Justin is indeed as eccentric as you would believe. Great night, nice people, wish I could've been there for the whole show. Will do again.