Motion City Soundtrack, Irving Plaza, New York
NEW YORK – There are certain shows you anticipate for a long time and some albums that bring you back
to a specific place. Motion City Soundtrack has been embarking on a tour commemorating the ten year anniversary of their album, Commit This To Memory, one of the most popular pop-punk albums of that era. Originally scheduled for January 27, the concert was postponed due to the (lack of) blizzard of 2015. Many fans attended the rescheduled show, piling into Irving Plaza for a meet and greet with the band. Throughout the night, there were many signed vinyl albums and T-shirts that were amongst the crowd. Fans consider Commit This To Memory as a winter album, and the cold night in New York was a perfect backdrop.
The opening band were the hometown heroes, Brooklyn’s very own, Team Spirit. They played songs from their debut album, Killing Time that sounded like pure power-pop. I’m talking guitar solos and choruses that were meant for the crowd to sing along. At one point in their set, singer/guitarist Ayad Al Adhamy asked the crowd what they were drinking then ran down the entire bar selection as he cracked open a cold one. Check them out if you can – you’ll be hearing from them a lot this year.
Next up was Vinnie Caruana, who is also the singer for the New York band Movelife as well as I Am The Avalanche. Caruana played songs from his solo EP as well as a Saves The Day cover that got a good reaction to the crowd. Between songs, Caruana talked to the crowd about various aspects of his songs and were they came from. It was like a funnier version of VH1’s “Storytellers”. Fans were engaged and Caruana sounded good while slicing the night in half as an acoustic artists in between two rock bands.
Motion City Soundtrack played an entire hour in addition to a set that highlighted the entire Commit This 
To Memory album. The band didn’t miss a beat, systematically blasting through songs like “Attractive Today” to “Hold Me Down”. There wasn’t a silent person in the house as fans recalled the time they cracked open their CDs (yes, they existed). Singer/guitarist Justin Pierre, big hair and all talked about certain songs and laughed through it – Commit This To Memory is dark from a lyrical content stand point. The band also played an encore with songs such as the bonus track from Commit This To Memory, “Invisible Monsters” and their huge hit “Is This For Real”. Yes, there was a real celebration and it looked like all parties involved were meeting an old friend.
Photos and article by : MJ Rawls
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