Jul 14

Jul 14 Show Review: Motion City Soundtrack Celebrates 'Commit This To Memory' in Sacramento

Motion City Soundtrack
“Commit This To Memory” 17-Year Anniversary Tour
w/ All Get Out, Neil Rubenstein
Ace of Spades
Sacramento, CA
July 12, 2022

Photos and review by Jared Stossel

One of the first shows I shot in 2020, three months before COVID hit the world, was Motion City Soundtrack’s comeback tour. The band had only been apart for a few years, but I was happy that the initial “break-up” was short lived. They’re a fantastic band. They always have been. Sometimes, you need to step away and get some perspective on life before you can get back to doing what you love. The show that Motion City Soundtrack put on that night was fantastic, and Tuesday night’s performance from the band at Sacramento’s Ace of Spades was in the same vein as that comeback show. Full of energy, reinvigorated by time, the five-piece act returned to the Northern California stage to play through one of their most coveted albums, Commit This To Memory.

Now, I have actually seen the band play this album before (on their ten-year anniversary tour!), so I had some semblance of what I would be in for performance-wise. Commit This To Memory kicks off with a powerful adrenaline shot of pop-infused alternative rock on “Attractive Today” before going into some of the band’s biggest hits like “Everything Is Alright”, “When You’re Around”, and “L.G. FUAD”. But we had to warm ourselves up to get to that point in the evening.

The show was kicked off with a comedian, only the second time in my life that I’ve seen this happen at a concert. I wasn’t entirely sure how this was going to work out, but Neil Rubenstein brought forth a fun, self-depreciating twenty-minute set that got the crowd laughing. Not even two minutes after he left the stage, All Get Out took the stage for a thirty-minute opening set that seamlessly fused indie rock, folk, and alternative into one tight-knit package. The band is currently touring in support of their brand new album, Kodak, which was released last month via Equal Vision Records (you can check it out here).

When Motion City Soundtrack took the stage, they looked the happiest I’d seen them in years. The second those opening notes kicked in on “Attractive Today”, the band came alive, electrifying everyone in the room as they traversed their way through the eleven tracks that make up their acclaimed sophomore album. After a brief pause, the band returned to play a ten-song encore comprised of some of the band’s best hits from albums like Even If It Kills Me, the absolutely spectacular My Dinosaur Life, and their debut I Am The Movie. Songs from the latter track closed out the evening, with the crowd screaming nearly every word to the band’s closing number, “The Future Freaks Me Out”. It’s one of their catchiest and best-written songs, and best was to close out any Motion City Soundtrack performance.

This is a band that has been around for nearly two decades and is showing no signs of stopping any time soon. It’s crazy to think that they’ve made only six albums since the release of their debut in 2003. With any luck, this show will be rolling along for a long, long time.

Motion City Soundtrack Set List
Commit This To Memory
Attractive Today
Everything Is Alright
When “You’re” Around
Resolution
Feel Like Rain
Make Out Kids
Time Turned Fragile
L.G. FUAD
Better Open The Door
Together We’ll Ring In The New Year
Hangman
Hold Me Down

Encore:
Crooked Ways
This Is For Real
Disappear
It Had To Be You
Last Night
A Lifeless Ordinary (Need a Little Help)
Her Words Destroyed My Planet
Broken Heart
My Favorite Accident
The Future Freaks Me Out