With Set Your Goals and This Providence
"How many of you brought kazoos?" It wasn't your typical audience query, but Motion City Soundtrack has never been your typical band. But after years building a loyal underground audience, the Minneapolis pop-punk-synth group seemed primed for a mainstream breakthrough, kazoos and all.
Or not. Despite a recent top 20 album (for "My Dinosaur Life") and an appearance on Jimmy Fallon's show, MCS remains quirky and unconventional, as Wednesday's show proved. Besides audience participation (those kazoos with "Her Words Destroyed My Planet"), the group trotted out an assortment of goofy pop culture references (“Veronica Mars,” “Will and Grace,” and KLM Airlines all made lyrical cameos), hyper-earnest relationship ballads and, during the encore, a replacement band—the group ceded the stage to a teen a capella group, who deftly harmonized through Motion's 2007 breakup track "Fell in Love Without You." With Set Your Goals, This Providence and The Swellers. —Kirk Miller
More concert photos: Kid Cudi at Irving Plaza | Charlotte Gainsbourg at The Bell House | Dinosaur Jr. at Brooklyn Bowl | Vampire Weekend at United Palace | Julian Casablancas at Terminal 5 | The Drums and Surfer Blood at Bowery Ballroom | The Hot Rats at Music Hall of Williamsburg | Au Revoir Simone at Highline Ballroom
