Commit This To Memory – 10 Year Anniversary Tour
Exit/In // Nashville, TN // July 14, 2015
Review by Jenn Stookey
Read our March 2015 issue ft Motion City Soundtrack for FREE here!
What is there to say about the Commit This To Memory 10 Year Anniversary Tour other than it was one of the best shows I have been to in quite some time? For many 20-somethings this album means the world. It came at a time when we were discovering our musical identity, surfing MySpace in search of the next best band we could share with all of our friends on our iPods at the cafeteria table. It’s an album that took many of us out of the Top 40 world and into a scene we would call home for the next 5-10 years and beyond.
Tonight was a night I was looking forward to since I heard Commit This To Memory back in 8th grade. As I sat outside on the deck of Exit/In in Nashville,TN having good conversation with new friends waiting for Motion City Soundtrack to burst onto the stage, the crowd inside started to roar and we all knew it was time. I ran inside as the guitar started to play the catchy beginning of my favorite CTTM song, “Attractive Today.” It made me recall all the times my parents would chauffeur me around to various sporting practices and school events blasting a song that had the word “fuck” in the lyrics, and I thought I might get burned alive by the glares I would receive from the drivers seat. But being there in that moment from beginning to end of the song was a life changing moment.
“Everything Is Alright” was next, a song that most people know even if they don’t really know who Motion City Soundtrack is. The room was filled from floor to ceiling with the highest energy, but a different type of energy. The crowd, mostly made of 20-30 year olds, was “too cool” and “too old” to jump around and get sweaty so the nod of the head and occasional fist pump to favorite lyrics was a sign of comfort and good times.
The show continued in order of the track listing when frontman Justin Pierre proclaimed, “This song is about making out.” I can specifically remember this being track six, another one of my favorites from the 2005 album, a track titled “Make Out Kids.” The lyrics, “make out kids never had a chance to be best friends” had me recall a time in middle school I thought if I made out with a boy I would not be able to be his friend afterwards. I was very young, naive, and took lyrics quite literally. But following track six came track seven, “Time Turned Fragile,” another crowd favorite, as if it was possible to say one song on this album was better than another.
The show continued to flow effortlessly between each song. Barely any banter came from the band, which made it easy to close your eyes and picture yourself popping in the CD into your walkman like you would have in 2005 and listening to it straight through. The nostalgia was more than I expected as I loudly “sang” the lyrics to each song. Only removing my phone from my back pocket one time to take three photos, because although this album is from 2005, we’re in 2015 and if you didn’t Instagram the show you went to did you even go? I was happy to not be looking through the cameras of others as well, as we all respected the art of performing beautiful music and experiencing it first hand, living in what was soon to be just a memory.
The band finished with the album and began with songs from other various records. The crowd dispersed a bit as we who are not as strong as we used to be, went to catch our breath. It was a show I will never forget, and a tour the band won’t either. It was a moment I will commit to my own memory forever.
