Growing up is a weird thing. We become attached to things, be it sports teams, bands, stores, it can be anything. We always expect these things to be around. For every entrenched entity that will never go away, we are also surrounded by fragile things that could disappear at any time.

I always thought that Motion City Soundtrack would be around. I’ve seen them live more times than I can recall. They were a band I would always head up to Cincinnati to see, or they happened to be opening for another act we were going to see. They played at EKU in 2006, and while that wasn’t the first night I hung out with the dude that would become one of my best friends, it was a night that ended up bringing us closer together. Two years later we saw Motion City open a show during that guy’s bachelor party.

Motion City grew as I did. Their music morphed as I went from being an angsty teenage, to a young adult moron, to a slightly smarter young adult. I’ve uncovered new layers in their albums every year as I went back and listened to them. Unlike many of their peers, the band always felt like there was something deeper going on.

Their first album, I Am The Movie, still holds up as a rough masterclass in imperfect songwriting. The album feels like had it been released eight years earlier, the band might have become one of those legendary 90s bands that still tour today on the backs of what they released two decades ago. Maybe it’s a good thing that the album was released when it was, because instead of becoming one of those bands, Motion City became something bigger.

Commit This to Memory would follow, and it would become the album most commonly identified with the band. Full of tracks that became staples of the scene, it’s an album that polished the rough edges shown on Movie, while not diluting the rawness of the writing.

Motion City would continue to display that rawness, never compromising it in an attempt to achieve the bigger levels of fame achieved by their peers. That’s one of the main reasons why I’ve proudly followed the band the whole time. While a band like Fall Out Boy became something that looks nothing like the group that burst onto the scene oh so long ago, Motion City became an older and more polished version of the band they were 14 years ago.

I never expected to live in a world where I wouldn’t be able to see them whenever they hit the road. I know that we’re not losing a life, and this feels really somber, but it’s just a strange feeling. It’s like when you lose contact with that one uncle, you might not have been super close, but knowing that they aren’t around anymore makes the world a little less bright.

So we’ll always have the music, and if you have a chance to catch one of their farewell shows, I highly suggest doing so. I know I’ll be at the Indianapolis show, and for one more night I’ll be able to give Motion City the energy and love they’ve given me over the years. Everything is definitely not alright.