When’s the ideal time to become a fan of a band? Right from the start? Perhaps, but then you’re inevitably going to reach a day when they stop playing your favorite songs live. Show up to the party late and you may miss the good old days. The idea behind Minneapolis’ favorites Motion City Soundtrack’s “4 Albums. 2 Nights. 7 Cities.” tour is to make everyone happy. Over the course of two nights, they’ll play their four records in their entirety, reaching back to 2003’s debut “I Am the Movie,” where the band established their Moog-heavy pop-punk sound.
“We had such success in Chicago when we had done it before [performing one different album over three nights in 2009], we felt like we wanted to bring it to some other people,” guitarist Josh Cain explains. “This is really for the people who have been with us for a long time, that really miss certain songs.”
Reaching back into the catalog is something fans of many bands wish might happen more often.
“At a normal show, once you have four records there is too much material for people to catch everything,”?he says. “People may love every song, but they’re not what you’d play when you’re trying to get a new audience to like you.”
With a tour like this, it’s safe to say the fans are already fully on board. It serves another, time-shifting purpose, Cain says.
“I think there’s something about the way it transports people back to when they first saw us in whatever small venue in the middle of nowhere with five people, and saw us to do whatever it is that made them fall in love with coming to our shows.”
