Complete Nonsense

But still funny.







Any explanation would be great.

Greatest. Show. Ever.

The Forecast rocking out

I warned you. You knew it was coming.

Jamie and I went to see Motion City Soundtrack tonight at the Varsity Theater in Dinkytown, Mpls.

Fuckin. A.

Like I mentioned in my last post, we missed The Forecast when we drove to Milwaukee last week. We did not miss these cats this time. They rocked so hard. The Forecast has a great sound thanks to their boy-girl duet thing that they have going on. I strongly urge everyone to check them out.

After The Forecast (yay) and before The Higher (boo) we were hanging out at the bar and I ran into Matt again (the bass player in the picture from Milwaukee). I just asked if their set would be pretty much the same and he said yeah, more or less, but hey, is there something I wanted to hear? Yes, I said. Red Dress. An excellent song.

Well, The Higher played and sucked like in Milwaukee but this time we had to hear the whole set. Bluh.

When Motion City hit the stage the crowd went nuts. Jamie and I managed to get right up to the front, like second people back. You could tell that these guys love playing in front of the hometown crowd. Their show was so high energy and so tight. They were playing everything as hard as ever - Justin broke three or four guitar strings, Jesse had an issue with his keyboard... these guys were going all out.

The set was pretty similar with a few notable differences. First, they replaced Mary Without Sound with a Tegan and Sara cover, You Wouldn't Like Me. The song is perfectly suited for MCS's style and they pulled it off perfectly. Second, their song This Is For Real was much, much better this time around. I don't know why I had such a bad impression of it the first time I'd heard it but I'm a believer now. Finally, their encore was two songs long. They played Perfect Teeth like last week but at the end they added...

...wait for it...

...Red Dress. They actually played my request! How great is that?

After the show Jamie and I were what we decided was 'wastesausted.' We lied on the cement floor in the corner and cooled off with a Premium and a bottle of water and when the crowd thinned we hit the lobby. The Forecast was sitting there so we sat down and shot the shit with Shannon a little bit and eavesdropped on one of the douche bags from The Higher try and pick up some 14 year old girls. I went around and collected autographs on my ticket stub and we went outside.

I'll admit, we kind of stalked MCS and followed them to the Dinkytowner. Jamie and I went back and played pool, had some pitchers of beer and we ended up sitting down with Matt from MCS and talking about their tour, his hometown of Richmond, their future plans and how annoying The Higher were. It was really nice of him to spend so much time with us considering they just finished an intense show at the end of a long tour. We told him we'd plan on seeing them in November at the Myth and got out of their hair.

All in all, we are so grateful for such a fun night and a great week. Thanks to The Forecast and Sherwood for good shows, but mostly thanks go out to Matt and Motion City Soundtrack for being so cool and open to hanging out with a couple of big fans and for rocking so hard.

Motion City in Milwaukee

My favorite band, Motion City Soundtrack, played a show at The Rave in Milwaukee last night with Sherwood, The Higher and The Forecast opening. Jamie and I had tickets for this show as soon as the dates were announced because there was no show announced for Minneapolis and I didn't want to miss them. So, road trip!

We left town a little late and missed The Forecast and The Higher, for the most part. What we did see of The Higher was not that impressive - a pretty typical teen-pop-punk band in the same vein as Boys Like Girls, who opened for MCS at Roy Wilkins in February. We were really impressed with Sherwood, a very melodic group similar to Mae that utilizes keyboards very effectively. A really moody yet upbeat set made me excited to check out their CDs.

The Motion City show, as expected, rocked. They opened strong and fast, only slowed down briefly and finished on a crowd favorite, working in a few new songs from their upcoming album. In case you're interested, here's the set list:

1. Capitol H - one of my favorite songs and one I hadn't heard them play the other two times I'd seen them.
2. Everything Is All Right - the 'single' from their last CD
3. No idea. I have never heard this song, and they said it was 'an old one.' This song rocked, though - hard and fast, just like their other early stuff.
4. Fell In Love Without You - a new song. Pretty solid.
5. Modern Chemistry - another favorite from their I Am the Movie disc.
6. Time Turned Fragile - a run of safe, well-liked songs from their Commit This to Memory disc begins in earnest.
7. Better Open the Door - I like this song because it mentions a few Minneapolis landmarks.
8. L.G. Fuad - Time to slow it down.
9. Mary Without Sound - a deep track from 'Movie,' I was surprised that they played this. Not the strongest song on the album.
10. This Is For Real - another new one, I hope it's not indicative of the slower songs on the new album.
11. Make Out Kids - a good song to start to pull out of the slower portion of the set
12. My Favorite Accident - still keeping it a little more chill but with a bit of a pop
13. Broken Heart - the new single. I really like this song - check out the video here.
14. Attractive Today - seemed like they were going to bring us in to the home stretch and start to really rock...
15. Hold Me Down - but instead go with one of their slowest songs. It's still one of my favorites, but to play it right near the end?
16. The Future Freaks Me Out - the crowd favorite. A sing along!
17.Encore - Perfect Teeth - another one of my favs from their first CD, I Am the Movie. A great end cap.

This night was great because after the show we went to a bar around the corner called the Harp and Shamrock. It was just a little dive but the bartender was really cool. He gave us five bucks to feed the kick-ass touch-screen jukebox and we got 2-for-1s for being at The Rave earlier. I played bar dice and won by the skin of my teeth four times, which meant four free shots. We went and grabbed some late-night grub and headed back to the car. Right across the street from The Rave we passed Justin (right) and Matt(left), the singer and bass player and I was able to get a picture with them. I don't know who that chick is, but she was next to us at the show and we called her Tats. I think she probably scored that night. Jamie and I were surprised at how short these dudes were.


So the night was one big high note. We're excited to hit the surprise Thursday MCS show that they recently announced on My Space. It's at the Varsity Theater and only $20. I highly recommend that everyone check it out!

Close Shave

The 35W bridge across the Mississippi River collapsed today at 6:15. The article says eight cars, but the latest reports say 30-50. That makes sense since it was still rush hour. I left work at 6:00 after having a beer and a shot. I take 35W home every day across that river on a route that takes 20-25 minutes.

A beer and a shot.