Say Anything and Motion City Soundtrack have always felt like neighboring houses in emo-punk’s messiest, most emotionally honest cul-de-sac. Both bands are built around songwriters who wear their mental health on their sleeves, turning anxiety, self-loathing, and hope into hooks that stick for decades. But where Motion City Soundtrack frontman Justin Pierre seems forever chasing the perfect melody and polishing it until it gleams. On the flip side of this co-headline adventure Say Anything’s Max Bemis treats songs more like living things, liable to change shape, fall apart, or bite back at any moment. That contrast gave the second leg of the bands’ co-headlining tour a compelling tension: control versus chaos, structure versus surrender.
Motion City Soundtrack took the stage first at the Fillmore in Philadelphia, clearly energized by the chance to show off songs from their latest album, The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World. Released in September of 2025, the record is the band’s first in a decade, following a 2016 breakup and a 2019 reunion, and it carries the sound of a group that’s been through it—and made it back intact. Opening with the anthemic “Some Wear a Dark Heart,” MCS sounded refreshed and confident, channeling their past without being trapped by it.
Blasting through a 18-song set, Motion City Soundtrack leaned heavily on World while still making time for deeper cuts like “Capital H” and “Timelines,” alongside the sugar-rush classics that first won them a generation of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater kids – “The Future Freaks Me Out” and “My Favorite Accident.” There was a brief anti-ice song that the band broke into on a whim with lyrics that would get the website taken down but take our word for it that the moment was electric. What stood out most, though, was the band’s body language: they bounced hardest during the newer songs, clearly thrilled to be falling in love with fresh material in real time rather than simply reenacting the past.
Say Anything followed with a very different energy, but an equally deliberate sense of purpose. While the band spent much of 2024 celebrating their debut, …Is a Real Boy, this tour felt less like a victory lap and more like a deep dive. The setlist favored album cuts over accessibility, unconcerned with easing in newcomers. Opening with the ultra-emo “Spores,” Bemis immediately signaled that this would not be a greatest-hits revue.
Where Motion City Soundtrack thrives on precision, Bemis thrives on instability. As the rest of the band powered through tight, fast punk on songs like “Shiksa (Girlfriend)” and “Belt” Bemis twisted his vocal lines almost growling, screaming, crooning, and reshaping familiar melodies on the fly. Sing-alongs were sacrificed in favor of something riskier: watching an artist actively dismantle and rebuild his own work. It could be disorienting for casual fans, but for those fluent in Say Anything’s emotional shorthand, it was thrilling and physical proof that these songs are still alive, still capable of surprising their creator.
The night closed with two of Say Anything’s most beloved tracks: a relatively straightforward, acoustic performance of “Baby Girl, I’m a Blur,” followed by a ragged, fiery take on “Alive With the Glory of Love.” Together, the performances summed up the evening’s thesis. These are two bands with shared roots and parallel histories, choosing different paths forward – but both refusing to coast. Decades removed from their breakout moments, Motion City Soundtrack and Say Anything are still challenging themselves, reshaping their art, and reminding longtime fans why it mattered in the first place.
Say Anything Tour
Photos: Matt Christine / Rock Documented – The Fillmore Philadelphia
