Motion City Soundtrack,Cartel, Sugarcult & Mae @ UCURefectory, Canberra (26/02/08)

Thu 28th Feb, 2008 in Gig Reviews

Tuesday night 26 February was rock, pop and punk night at the University of Canberra Union Refectory, with four bands: Motion City Soundtrack, Cartel, Sugarcult and Mae, all having fun keeping a small but committed crowd entertained. Mae opened the night with their relatively relaxed sounds setting the scene nicely for the entire night. Sugarcult delivered an engaging set, and then Cartel had everyone on their feet and listening, ready for the highlight which was Motion City Soundtrack – with everyone apparently there to see the five-piece.

Motion City Soundtrack came onto stage with energy, drummer Tony Thaxton and bassist Matthew Taylor did a great job of pummeling us with a body hitting rhythm. Front-man Justin Pierre kept the crowd largely engaged even as he habitually swapped guitars in the quest for something tuned, while Josh Cain and Jesse Johnson demonstrated a comradely charisma that gave you something to look at if you got a bit tired of the instrument swapping. The band had the audience on their feet throughout the set and often a decent body of people jumping around to their sounds; this amongst what was a relatively small crowd for the UCU Refectory. Probably more reflective of this being a Tuesday night gig that cost $50 rather than there being a lack of fans.

Motion City Soundtrack kicked off their night loudly and they took the audience through a lively set – It Had To Be You and This Is For Real the highlights – they engaged in some comedy and generally looked like they where having fun; this translated into the crowd also having a lot of enjoyment, from the jumpers at the front, to those tapping their feet at the back and the dude who lost his shoe and seemed to be circling in the hope that it would resurface. Amongst the rocking pop-punk sound the influence of The Rentals was clearly heard and added a nice melody, something which seemed to flow through to the crowd who would surge at times but largely maintained a rhythm of relaxed enjoyment. Motion City Soundtrack’s set ended the night with some great sounding loudness.

Cartel, or CRTL for those buying shirts on the night, did power-pop the crowd with their music. While Will Pugh’s efforts to engage the audience lost something in translation from American to Australian the band kept the everyone focused with a lively set that did not waste time and played the songs that the audience wanted, like The Fortunate.

Welcomed by the crowd, Sugarcult’s pop punk had a more hard-bitten edge than the other bands. This band, like the others on the night, engaged the crowd well and everyone appreciated their music. The crowd was definitely into Tim Pagnotta, Marko DeSantis, Airin and Kenny Livingston with Pagnotta constantly moving about the stage to engage with different segments of the crowd, and songs like Pretty Girl and Los Angeles got a great reception from everyone there.

Mae was liked by the crowd. Opening the night with their welcoming pop-punk they were a confident and engaging band that got through their set with enough talk to open up the audience. The three-piece of Dave Elkins, Jacob Marshall and Zach Gehring made it known that he appreciated being in Canberra, Elkins in particular opened the band up to speak with any fans who wanted some of their time, and while some in the crowd gave them mixed reviews they did not do anything wrong in their set, even overcoming some problem with the sound that left an odd buzzing pervading any moments when there would be silence, overall the crowd was into Mae, paying attention, if not dancing or moshing.