I rolled into Charlotte, NC a little tired from my two and a half hour drive, but pumped for a chance to see two bands I’ve been listening to for over twenty years: @Motion City Soundtrack and Say Anything. The last time I saw MCS was back in 2008 on Warped Tour, a fantastic memory of a great show, only slightly marred by the absolutely savage sun poisoning I walked away with that day. And I had never had an opportunity to see Max Bemis and crew live, so I was feeling particularly excited to check that off my bucket list.
After checking into my hotel (and maybe a little nap - I’m old and I was too early to head straight to the venue anyway), I made my way to The Fillmore, walked into the club and posted up a couple rows back from the barricade with about 15 minutes to spare. The crowd piled in and at 7:30 the lights dropped. The M.A.S.H. theme played over the speakers and out came Sincere Engineer, another band I was excited to see live. And they did NOT disappoint.
The energy was electric from the start - the Chicago based punk rockers, led by front woman Deanna Belos, owned the stage from the moment they set foot on it. The crowd was still shuffling in, and with a few exceptions it was pretty plain to see that not many people were familiar with Sincere Engineer. That didn’t stop the band from having fun and giving off an infectious energy that got the crowd moving, even if it was just a little bit. Each song got its own fun introduction: “This song’s about California” - "California King." “This one’s about Corndogs” - "Corn Dog Sonnet No. 7."
The set was cut short when Deanna ran off stage at the end of Overbite, the penultimate song of the night, without much explanation
(I found out later through TikTok that she had food poisoning all night - the fact that she sounded as good as she did and made it through as much of the set as she did speaks volumes about her as a performer in my opinion).
The band announced shortly after that they would need to cut their set short, but even without the last song (which presumably would have been "Trust Me"), it was a great and memorable set. I proudly sent my teenaged daughter pictures and videos from the set, knowing that Deanna is exactly the type of person she aspires to be - a female vocalist who doesn’t need an extreme range or to wear skin tight clothes to show the world how talented a musician she is.
After Sincere Engineer closed their set, the crowd anxiously awaited the next band, and when the sound techs doing a quick sound check triggered the iconic phone ringing sound effect on the keyboard we all cheered, ready for Say Anything to take the stage. And take the stage they did!
I was honestly a little nervous going into this set - I’d heard some bad reviews about recent live shows put on by the band, and I had heard Mr. Bemis was going through a tough time post divorce. But I was pleasantly surprised with how well the guys performed. The set started a little slower - it took a while to build up energy and get the crowd moving, but with some great numbers off their older albums like "Shiksa (Girlfriend)", "Woe", "Belt", "Eloise", and of course, "Every Man has a Molly", the crowd got up and moving. In between songs the banter between the guys was so positive - hearing Max praise the rest of the band was honestly pretty heart warming and something I enjoyed a lot. It was refreshing to see these elder millennial rockers taking care of each other and having fun on stage 20+ years after their biggest album release.
Then we were treated to a Max Bemis solo number when we played an acoustic rendition of "Baby Girl, I’m a Blur". This was one of my favorite parts of the night, and definitely my favorite part of their set (although I’m a big "Belt" fan and was stoked to hear them play that too). We were rewarded with the ringing phone intro of "Wow, I Can Get Sexual Too" and then we all rocked out hard to "Alive With the Glory of Love" to send the Say Anything boys off.
Motion City Soundtrack took the stage next, to thunderous applause. Before the lights even came up, the band broke into "Some Wear a Dark Heart", the lead track from their new album The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World. After that slow but powerful introduction, they broke into a crowd favorite - "My Favorite Accident", and we finally saw some crowd surfers emerge from what had been a relatively quiet crowd all night. Justin Pierre and the rest of MCS haven’t lost much at all in the nearly 30 years since the band formed, and they brought so much energy to the venue, it was thick enough to cut through with a proverbial knife.
The whole set was a fantastic mixture of new music and fan favorites. They even played "Her Words Destroyed My Planet", my personal favorite MCS song, from their 2010 album My Dinosaur Life. From their newer albums title track to "Particle Physics" (a song which perfectly embodies how it feels to feel alone in a crowd you can’t seem to figure out), the crowd was treated to a night of emotional and lyrical genius, performed by a band that truly hasn’t lost a beat in the 20 years since I last saw them live. Sure, they look a little older (we all do), but they rocked just as hard as I remembered as they played "L.G. FUAD" (as the crowd screamed it back, middle fingers raised high in the air), "She Is Afraid" and "Everything Is Alright". A really cool effect was that the lighting colors on the stage almost always seemed to match the album cover from the songs the band was playing.
One thing I would have loved to see was a Motion City Soundtrack/Sincere Engineer performance of "Things Like This" from the new album, but I was happy and completely satisfied with the amount of absolute bangers MCS was able to roll out in their set that clocked in at just over an hour.
The group, originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota, has recently spoken out about some of the political turmoil their home town has been facing, and while it wasn’t a focus of the show, they did remind the crowd to “Take care of each other, and FUCK ICE,” a declaration that received an enthusiastic and resounding cheer from the crowd.
With the 11pm local curfew looming, the band powered through more of their hits, ending their set with a praiseworthy performance of "The Future Freaks Me Out."
Overall, the show was exactly what I hoped for heading in - an entertaining, energetic night full of nostalgia and great music. The Motion City Soundtrack and Say Anything Winter Tour 2026 (featuring Sincere Engineer) has several more stops between now and the end of February - if they are coming anywhere near you and you’ve been waffling over whether to go, this writer would strongly recommend that you do the right thing and just buy the tickets.