MOTION CITY SOUNDTRACK MADE SURE EVERYTHING WAS ALRIGHT IN BOSTON

It had been roughly three and a half years since Motion City Soundtrack bid their farewell to a Boston crowd, but judging by their titanic return to the city on Monday night (January 6), it’s like they never left.

Bringing their Don’t Call It a Comeback tour to Boston’s House of Blues, the recently resurrected pop punk quintet had Landsdowne Street feeling all of the feels, with the help of their friends in Brooklyn-based indie rockers A Great Big Pile of Leaves and Ohio-bred quartet Sidekicks, who got the night started with their own sets of emotionally and sonically powerful jams.

A Great Big Pile Of Leaves

Sidekicks

The Minnesota natives immediately picked up where they left off after taking the stage with a youth energy, as they serenaded the virtually sold-out crowd with a 20-song setlist that harbored little to no experimentation in the best way possible, as every tune pumped out by frontman Justin Courtney Pierre was a fan favorite from somewhere in the band’s six-album catalog, as the band blasted nothing but straight bangers like “When ‘You’re’ Around,” “Everything is Alright,” “Her Words Destroyed My Planet,” and “Let’s Get Fucked Up and Die” (or “L.G. FUAD” if we’re honoring stylization), before ending the raucous occasion with “The Future Freaks Me Out.”

Motion City Soundtrack

Pierre’s voice showed no signs of wear caused by the extended hiatus – although it was fairly tough at various points in the night to even hear the frazzle-haired frontman, as every song gradually evolved into a fervent sing-along, to which Pierre gleefully obliged every time. Virtually every aspect of the night was flawless. From the vibe to the setlist, to the light show and the volume that was at just the right level, Motion City Soundtrack’s first show back in Boston will certainly be one to remember. The band was visually and audibly gelling and, albeit entirely too easy to inject a play-on-words of the lyrics of one of the band’s most recognizable tracks, the crowd had no problem letting the guys know that everything was alright – at least now that they’re back, helping everyone in the room feel a little bit better.