The Wake

In the Quest’s main room, platoons of pre-teens are waging a pop-punk war on sadness. But backstage, the mood is decidedly calm.In a small and dingy dressing room, Motion City Soundtrack are awaiting their turn to go onstage. Flanked by empty pizza boxes, bottles of Newcastle and the nuclear-bomb-blast beats of the opening band, the guys in M.C.S. shuffle around, darting in and out of the stage doors like waiters in a cramped downtown-diner. It’s a scene of sustained chaotic calm. Jesse Johnson, keyboardist for the Minneapolis quintet, is quietly patching up his Moog-synthesizer with neon-green electrical tape. Bassist Matt Taylor is greeting various people backstage; only handshakes here though: the noise of the nearby stage drowns out virtually everything else. The atmosphere backstage permeates with anxious anticipation. The band has seen the crowd, and …

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