Converse Rubber Tracks Like: Motion City Soundtrack & MA Jolie
September 4, 2014 // Music Hall Of Williamsburg // Brooklyn, NY
Review by Christina Santamaria
Free live music is hard to pass up regardless of who’s playing. Free live music is especially hard to pass up when the band playing is one you love and have paid to see several times. As soon as I heard the announcement that Motion City Soundtrack were playing a free show for Converse Rubber Tracks, I RSVP’d immediately. And it’s a good thing I did—the list filled up so fast, some people were even selling their “tickets” online.
Converse Rubber Tracks is a community-based recording studio based in Brooklyn, New York which offers free studio time to local and emerging artists. It only makes sense that they put on a concert that was also free of charge. The opening band, Ma Jolie, was selected by the members of Motion City Soundtrack themselves to open the for the show. Ma Jolie are an independent punk band from Philadelphia and fit perfectly in the show. The venue was almost full before they started, and they succeeded in warming up the crowd. Looking around, concertgoers in the front row as well as those sitting back by the bar all bobbed their heads along to Ma Jolie’s melodic songs and the band responded gratuitously, thanking the audience and Motion City Soundtrack profusely.
Motion City Soundtrack took the stage after a brief set change and, despite not having played a show since May of this year, immediately pumped up the crowd with an old favorite, “My Favorite Accident.” Being seventeen year veterans of the modern pop-punk scene, the band jumped from album to album among their extensive discography, and the audience of die-hard fans had no trouble keeping up. The energy level throughout the show did not waver in the slightest, even when frontman Justin Pierre made a futile attempt at stopping stage divers after his microphone was nearly knocked over. Regardless, the crowd surfing continued even during “Last Night,” the slowest song on the setlist, but the band didn’t seem to mind the crowd’s enthusiasm at all. An undeniable highlight was the crowd nostalgically requesting “Throw Down” from the band’s 2000 Back to the Beat EP, which the members quickly re-taught themselves and played cheerfully, albeit somewhat messily.
Though it may seem contradictory, seeing seasoned bands who have been around for over a decade feels refreshing. The audience members were all on the same page: we were there to listen to great music and see a band we’ve loved for years. Bands like Motion City Soundtrack don’t just follow trends. They are not here for a fleeting fifteen minutes of fame and coolness. They make music that they love for fans who genuinely enjoy it, and that element of authenticity is what made this show so special. They can still sell out venues to enthusiastic crowds, Justin Pierre’s hair still defies the laws of physics, Jesse Johnson’s synth solos are still impossible not to dance to. Motion City Soundtrack are still exactly who they set out to be, and that’s why fans will undoubtedly continue to stick around for their long-awaited next album which has an expected 2015 release date.
