After performing at Sonic Temple Festival in Ohio, Motion City Soundtrack made their way over to Allentown, PA for a intimate one off show to finish out their weekend. For a Sunday it was a packed show and opening the night was Philadelphia’s Carly Cosgrove. The first time I saw Carly Cosgrove was when they did an acoustic set opening for Ace Enders, a different approach to their music musically and performance wise. However, this show was full electric and I finally got to see the full version of Carly Cosgrove. Within that about half hour set, they put on a fun and energetic show, and not sure if they performed in the area before, but they had a decent size of people watching and singing along. I still believe that seeing Carly Cosgrove in a small basement like show is where you’d get the full effect of their live show, but they pulled off performing on a bigger stage with bringing that same type of energy. From the first time I’ve saw them, which they were just starting out, to now, they have grown in popularly and I think it is going to keep increasing.

Not far from Allentown, PA is Stroudsburg, PA and 10 years ago this year Motion City Soundtrack played what would be their final Pennsylvania show at Sherman Theater. The band would go on hiatus, but thankfully reunite in 2019 and since then would continue to tour and in 2025 release their long awaited new album The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World. It is clear to see that Motion City Soundtrack is fully back and to see them again in North East Pennsylvania exactly almost 10 years apart is something of serendipity.

At this point in their career Motion City Soundtrack has a plethora of hit songs they can play live, while squeezing in deep tracks or newer songs. For this one off show they incorporated a perfect mix of old, new, and everything in between. The songs from their latest album, The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World, were the highlight and surprisingly six songs from that album were performed. Usually new songs don’t a huge reaction as older songs, but these songs flow perfectly in their setlist especially “Particle Physics”. The song is a the textbook Motion City Soundtrack song, witty lyrics, moog sounds, and sing along chorus. I am still surprised this wasn’t the lead single from the album.

Spirits seemed high for this show, from the band to the crowd, intimate shows like this have a powerful energy because it is usually the true fans that are in the audience. So much so, seeing Justin Pierre get off stage and sing in the crowd was something I’ve never seen him do. Even while he was singing, he would repeatedly say I don’t usually do this while laughing. As the band played out the rest of the song he ran up and down the barricade giving everyone high fives. For me this had to be one of the top performance I’ve seen of Motion City Soundtrack and I think the same would go for everyone else in the crowd. Motion City Soundtrack was part of my high school years and really defined my college years and beyond. To have them back at full capacity is wonderful and won’t be taken for granted.