BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.2.3.1//EN TZID:America/New_York X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/New_York BEGIN:VEVENT UID:794@jointherevolution.net DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260123T183000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260123T230000 DTSTAMP:20251007T202808Z URL:https://www.jointherevolution.net/concerts/say-anything-and-motion-cit y-soundtrack-winter-tour-2026/ SUMMARY:SAY ANYTHING AND MOTION CITY SOUNDTRACK - WINTER TOUR 2026 DESCRIPTION:SAY ANYTHING\n\nIf you predicted a carefree ending\, you haven ’t been paying attention for the past two decades. Max Bemis was never b uilt to placidly ride off into the sunset to pursue the sedate joys of whi te picket fence life in small-town Texas. That isn’t to say that he didn ’t try. The fact that you’re about to listen to another Say Anything r ecord is the evidence that something went lethally askew. And the tale of the chaos is embedded into the band’s latest sly-but-searing opus…Is C ommitted.\n\n \;\n\nWe last left the band in a different dimension. In 2019\, Say Anything released Oliver Appropriate – with Bemis claiming t hat this meta-fictional critique of mass culture and the band itself would be their last epic. It was admittedly closer to an extended hiatus in the vein of Jay-Z\, but the implications were clear. When Bemis co-founded th e band in the first years of this hexed century\, Say Anything served as a vessel for the most caustic\, obscene\, and harrowing thoughts of his id. It was something like the pop-punk Portnoy’s Complaint or an emo Fear a nd Loathing in Los Angeles: artful satire that could double as a wounded c onfessional. \n\n \;\n\nThe post-modern masterpieces of Bemis’ earl y 20s splintered the lines between hero and anti-hero. Grandiose myths wer e elaborately constructed only to be savagely punctured. It’s supposed t o be funny\, but it never was just a joke. But like most creations where t he fictional narrator is frequently confused for the artist themselves\, t he carefully delineated boundaries began to collapse. The character began to seep into real-life and the demons returned. Bemis began to feel like J erry Seinfeld playing the empathy-averse fictionalized version of himself on Seinfeld. \n\n \;\n\n“There’s a lot of truth in the Say Anythi ng albums\, but I was often misperceived by the fans and the press\,” Be mis says. “Eventually\, I found myself starting to act like the characte r and it didn’t agree with me. I started wondering if I was a bad person who was completely insane and should be locked in a mental health facilit y. Or am I flawed but ultimately good person who has just been writing abo ut himself in very unhealthy ways?” \n\n \;\n\nA semi-permanent sab batical from the project felt like the most reasonable course of action – especially as Donald Trump rose to power\, the crimes of Harvey Weinst ein were brought to light\, and the rock scene seemed to become more misog ynistic. Bemis was now focused on being the best parent possible to his fi ve children and repudiating the occasionally crude jokes and youthful indi scretions of the past. He concentrated on recording solo material and on h is second career as a comic book writer. \n\n \;\n\nThen everything b egan to unravel. The pandemic caused financial and mental health struggles . For most of his adult life\, Bemis has publicly grappled with addiction and bipolarity\, while his wife and collaborator\, Sherri Dupree-Bemis ope rated as a grounding force. But for the first time\, she experienced her o wn psychological woes\, which led him into the unfamiliar position of bein g a stabilizing figure. \n\n \;\n\nThe spiral continued. A few years earlier\, the Bemis family relocated to Tyler\, Texas\, where Dupree was b orn and raised. As the strife and chaos metastasized\, his in-laws began b laming Bemis for the duress. Public accusations were bandied about and fam ily services was called to investigate false claims of his children being at risk. In due time and at great expense\, Bemis cleared his family’s n ame and reputation\, but the traumatic effects lingered.  \n\n \;\n\ n“With my family\, I found a place where I was safe\, and then someone t ried to take it from me\,” Bemis says. “I basically turned into Frank Castle from The Punisher. I had to defend my family and hire a lawyer and fight. The experience took a ton out of me. And writing this record helped . I wrote it to save my own life – to remind me that this is what you ca n’t become.” \n\n \;\n\nThe next step required reforming the band . Bemis started by writing an acoustic song and sending it to drummer\, Co by Linder\, to successfully woo him back into the fold. Everything followe d from there. \n\n \;\n\n“I was genuinely feeling these familiar em otions of angst and turmoil – a serious punk anger that I hadn’t felt in a long time.” Bemis recalls.\n\n \;\n\nThe track eventually becam e “PSYCHE!”\, which became a first step towards exorcising the agony. In the same way that Meek Mill’s “Dreams and Nightmares” intro serve s as an adrenaline shot to help shake off self-doubt and depression\, the songs on …Is Committed are meant to be played at pulverizing volume. The se are sing-a-longs for listeners to shred their larynxes. Raw power tappi ng into atavistic rage\, and offering catharsis for anyone who has ever fe lt like the world was conspiring against them. \n\n \;\n\n..Is Commit ted represents both a return to form and a mid-career left turn. Bemis sti ll traffics in exaggeration and Jewish humor\, but the hyperbole has been tempered by the blows of reality. This is no longer the angst of post-adol escence\, but the grim phantasms of adulthood. Coming full circle in a sen se\, Bemis says these are the most autobiographical songs that he’s writ ten since high school.  \n\n \;\n\nAs with any Say Anything record\, the songs are rollicking and self-referential\, jampacked with meta-refer ences and in-jokes. Before “lore” became a Gen Z cliché\, Bemis was e mploying it was still called “world-building.” The opener “BE\, CHIL DREN (INTRODUCTION TO THE REUNION RECORD)” starts off with what might as well be a mission statement:  “to the self-indulgent/indulge yourself with me.” It’s partially a satire of a reunion song\, but filled with a jarring and uncomfortable honesty that belies the tongue-in-cheek humor. It also rocks hard. Bemis did not bring Say Anything back to make an Iron &\; Wine record. \n\n \;\n\nTake “ON CUM\,” a textbook second song ripper packed with allusions to the bands that formed the soundtrack to Emo Nite and the When We Were Young Festival. It has a chopping punk t hrash backbeat\, a battering NOFX-style second verse attack\, and an idios yncratic and emotional outro. \n\n \;\n\nNo one is better than Bemis than leaning into the cliches and subversively deconstructing them. With “AUTO HARMONIC ASS FIXATION\,” he riffs on perverse tropes of sex and masturbation\, but manages to write a sincere and liberatory ode to the jo ys of carnality. On “I VIBRATOR\,” he lampoons the traditional “for the ladies” song” by writing about his desire to be a disembodied vibr ator used as a tool of female sexual empowerment. \n\n \;\n\nThere ar e songs about needing to get the band back together (“DAISY”) and song s about religious oppression (“SAY ANYTHING\, COLLECTIVELY\, MADE LOVE T O YOUR GOD”)  and 8-minute\, five-part odysseys that mock the expectati ons of a final song (“FAN FICTION”). But the nuclear reactor core of t he album comes when Bemis unpacks the layers of trauma and writes fearless ly about the vicissitudes of the last several years. \n\n \;\n\nOn “WE SAY GRACE IN THIS GODDAMN BAND\, MISTER\,” Bemis attacks with grac e and venom\, aiming acerbic barbs at the small-town in Texas that nearly destroyed him. The façade of kindness that dissolved when its fundamental ist Christian\, anti-civil rights philosophy was directed towards his fami ly. “CARRIE &\; LOWELL &\; CODY (PENDENT)” find the author getti ng into conflict with his mother for the first time. It’s a song about c o-dependency\, alienation\, and resolving conflict with the ones closest t o you. \n\n \;\n\nThe penultimate “WOMAN SONG” might be the most important song that Bemis has ever written. It was penned a few days after child services came to his home. He’d been up all night\, sleepless\, i n tears. In front of his sleeping daughter\, he improvised this requiem fo r his estranged mother and his vanished youth. A rumination about the devi ls that had been expunged but had returned with vengeance. It’s frail an d vulnerable and ridiculous and funny\, distilling all the heart-on-sleeve pathos and self-parody that define the Say Anything canon. \n\n \;\n \n…Is Committed is much an album as a labyrinth\, a therapy session kvet ch\, a conflagration of obscene horror\, familial distress\, and humanisti c lament. A defining capstone to a period of blinding trauma that has only now begun to heal. You probably already knew that anesthetized bliss was never in the cards. After all\, the closest thing to a happy ending in rea l life is one that is bittersweet. \n\n \;\n\nMOTION CITY SOUNDTRACK  \n\nThe Same Old Wasted Wonderful World\n\n(EPITAPH RECORDS) \n\n \ ;\n\n“ One day I’ll disappear and you’ll be just like me”  \n\n& nbsp\;\n\n“Don’t Call It a Comeback” isn’t just the name of a song off Motion City Soundtrack’s 2003 debut I Am The Movie\, it’s also an apt way to summarize the band’s mission statement. During Motion City S oundtrack’s initial run from 1997 - 2016\, the Minneapolis-based group r eleased six celebrated albums\, toured the world countless times and achie ved gold status for their hit single “Everything Is Alright.” After ta king a three year hiatus\, the band—vocalist/guitarist Justin Pierre\, g uitarist Joshua Cain\, bassist Matt Taylor\, keyboardist Jesse Johnson and drummer Tony Thaxton—started performing live again in 2019\, but even t he most optimistic fans didn’t necessarily expect a follow-up to 2015’ s Panic Stations. “When we started conceptualizing the idea for this rec ord\, I was thinking about what we loved about doing this originally\,” Cain explains. The result is The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World\, an albu m that sees the band transmuting the last decade of life experiences into the most catchy songs of their career. \n\n \;\n\nSome of these songs were originally conceived during the making of Panic Stations\, such as t he first single “She Is Afraid.” However it took some time and perspec tive for the songs to finally come together in their final form. “I love the opening riff of “She Is Afraid\,” I knew it was one of my favorit e things the first time I heard Josh play it\,” Pierre says of the disto rted guitar bends that immediately set the tone for this alt-rock anthem. “Sometimes we can get caught up with the idea of if a song is punk rock enough\; we realized that for the song to be a success we need to have a g reat time playing it\,” Cain adds when asked about the mindset behind Mo tion City Soundtrack’s first new collection of songs in a decade. That f eeling of carefree exuberance is evident all over The Same Old Wasted Wond erful World from the instantly infectious palm-muted power of “You Know Who The Fuck We Are” to the motivational bent of “Things Like This\, ” the latter of which features vocals from Deanna Belos of Sincere Engin eer. \n\n \;\n\nOver the course of their career Motion City Soundtrac k have worked with legendary producers ranging from Ric Ocasek to Mark Hop pus\, but for The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World they reunited with Sean O’Keefe (Fall Out Boy\, Plain White T’s) at the legendary Chicago stud io\, Electrical Audio. “Working with Sean was really comforting because he’s so laid back and I love that he’s a drummer\, so he’s obsessed with drum sounds\,” Taylor explains. “He’s super open to experimenti ng and it’s like hanging out with a friend you feel comfortable around. ” That sense of experimentation is especially evident on the atmospheric \, bass-driven “Mi Corazón\,” which sees the band embracing their pos t-hardcore influences without sacrificing the keen sense of melody that ha s always defined their sound. “I don’t like hearing the demos with fak e drums because I’ll get those parts in my head\, so I literally showed up to the sessions not even hearing the songs\,” says Thaxton\, whose im provised creativity led to some of the album’s most memorable moments. “I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable doing that and trusting myself\, ” he adds.\n\n \;\n\nFully realizing the potential of their music wi thout overthinking the execution is the secret to The Same Old Wasted Wond erful World’s success—and it’s evident on “Particle Physics\,” a song co-written with and featuring Fall Out Boy guitarist/vocalist Patric k Stump. “We met Patrick in the early days of Fall Out Boy and had more recently talked about having him contribute to this album\,” Cain explai ns about the song’s origin. “He told us he had an idea running through his head about a song Motion City Soundtrack would have written but haven ’t written yet. It was this little riff and chorus to ‘Particle Physic s’ and even though it was just part of the song\, the vibe was completel y there.” From there the rest of the band scaffolded the verses and brid ge around that section while Pierre added his signature brand of pop cultu re-influenced lyrics\, which reference everything from the indie band That Dog to celebrated neurologist Oliver Sacks. The result is a track that so unds distinctly like Motion City Soundtrack while still featuring one of r ock’s most recognizable voices. \n\n \;\n\nHowever the most impress ive aspect of The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World is the fact that instead of relying solely on nostalgia and album anniversary tours\, Motion City Soundtrack continue to experiment outside their comfort zone. In that spir it\, another standout song is the moody meditation “Your Days Are Number ed\,” which features an impassioned cameo from Citizen’s Mat Kerekes t hat Pierre describes as “fucking brutal.” “ It's a very interestin g thing to feel like we made the most important record of our career this late in the game\,” Johnson says when asked about how he views the album in the context of the group’s discography. “ You might have some ca llbacks to some older stuff but it wasn’t intentional\, it was because w e were just being ourselves.” \n\n \;\n\nMotion City Soundtrack wil l be the first ones to tell you that The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World w asn’t necessarily an easy album to make\, but now that it’s finished i t’s a document of the last ten years that shows them growing as people a longside their music. “I think that if you look at a lot of our past rec ords\, it’s about ‘What’s wrong? What am I not getting right? Why do I feel fucking crazy? Why can’t I figure this out’… and I figured i t out\,” Pierre admits. “It’s  almost like I felt I didn’t have a n identity [in the past] and now by working through the hard stuff\, I kno w who I am.” That sense of self-discovery is mirrored by the music\, so when the final track fades out with just acoustic guitar and Pierre’s vo cals it may be the conclusion of the album\, but it’s the beginning of a nother chapter for Motion City Soundtrack’s collective journey. \n\n&nb sp\; ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.jointherevolution.net/wp-content/upl oads/2025/09/Static_Social-Instagram_1080x1350_SayAnythingMotionCitySoundt rack_RevolutionLive_0123-6.jpg CATEGORIES:All Ages,Concerts LOCATION:Revolution Live at the Backyard\, 100 sw 3rd ave\, Fort Lauderdale \, Florida\, 33312\, United States GEO:26.121147;-80.146238 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=100 sw 3rd ave\, Fort Laude rdale\, Florida\, 33312\, United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=Revolut ion Live at the Backyard:geo:26.121147,-80.146238 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York X-LIC-LOCATION:America/New_York BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20251102T010000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR