Standing at the House of Blues last Wednesday April 7th was like stepping into a time machine. Suddenly I was back in high school, going to a concert on a school night to see my favorite pop punk band on the week. Back then it was cool to be seen at a show like this, it was cool to spike your hair and wear spiky bracelets. Now, sadly pushing 26, it was just kinda sad. For me at least.
At my age I should be going to see artsy bands with complicated lyrics, syncopated rhythms and chords that venture outside of the basic power chord. But hell, I still watch cartoons on a weekly basis, so who says my music tastes have to completely grow up.
In a line up that blasted through several styles of the punk-pop genre, a crowd full of much younger and sexier music fans waited for their headliner, Motion City Soundtrack. With synth pop melodies, extremely catchy hooks, and lyrics for those of us bred on Mountain Dew and Mario it was the place to be on an early Wednesday night. Assuming you had your parents permission.
Openers Sing it Loud and Rocket to the Moon were, completely forgettable. Their brand of ‘rock’ seemed like recycled bits and pieces from all my favorite songs ten years ago. Back then, I might have thought it was fresh but even with my current immature musical tastes, I could recognize music for high schoolers by high schoolers. Is this really the product of a generation weaned on Blink 182 and Green Day? The rest of the crowd (mostly the tweens) seemed into it so if it makes them happy, rock on you youngin’s.
Luckily for me and other older members of the audience, the following band was extremely, well fun. Fun, the product of the now dispersed band, The Format, is a completely indescribable band. But I’ll try my best. With musical influences that transcends decades of music, Fun is a band you have to see to experience. With 6 members jumping and dancing to the music fun not only provided a well-deserved burst of energy, but they genuinely seemed like they were having exactly what their name suggests. Songs like “All the Pretty Girls,” and “At Least I’m Not as Sad (As I Used to Be)” are insanely catchy and really set the stage for the headliner.
Motion City Soundtrack took the stage at 8PM and immediately started rocking into the night. Their setlist had a large amount of their older catalogue while still giving a broad, best of from their latest album, My Dinosaur Life. Single’s “A Lifeless Ordinary,” and “Her Words Destroyed My Planet,” are great songs, but for me, the fun and energy of their latest album came from “Pulp Fiction,” and “@!#?@!” Their style hasn’t changed too much since I saw them last, but their energy level was amazingly even stronger than it was when I first saw them at the Warped Tour in 2003.
What I enjoyed most of all was being there to witness a crowd that acted suspiciously like I did back in high school, jumping up and down, smiling with their pals, and screaming along to their favorite songs. They hit a deep chord of nostalgia with me with some of their older tunes like, “My Favorite Accident” and “The Future Freaks Me Out.” Songs I remember loving cruising around my first year of College.
If anything I can say that the concert was a blast to the past for me, which is weird considering that all the songs from this show were only released seven or eight years ago. But what can I say; I get nostalgia for things that happened to me at breakfast. And I like being reminded of my music history, no matter how embarrassing or silly it might be. But it takes a band that is still relevant after nearly a decade to make me realize that all those years of music were not completely wasted.
