Motion City singer makes Point Park stop along 'Dino Trail'

Since the age of 12, Anthony Costulas has seen rock band Motion City Soundtrack in concert 13 times. Last night marked concert number 14. This concert however, was a little bit different than most.

The band's singer/songwriter, Justin Pierre, held a free acoustic performance in the Lawrence Hall lobby last night for a crowd of about 60 Point Park University students, all thanks to Twitter and Costulas' persistence.

Costulas brought the singer to Point Park after seeing one of Pierre's Twitter updates on Nov. 9 saying that he would be in Pittsburgh on Nov. 12 and was looking for cool places to play while on a short acoustic tour to promote the band's new album, My Dinosaur Life. Costulas, a sophomore political science and pre-law major, did not waste any time.

"I sent him about 80 tweets telling him 'I'm an RA at [Point Park], if you come, I can get you a place [to play,]" he said.

It was not until Wednesday night though that Costulas received the news that Pierre would indeed be coming to play at Point Park. Pierre's tour manager delivered the news to Costulas via e-mail and he immediately sprang into action, running to the Office of Campus Life for their help in procuring a venue. Once it was decided that the concert would take place in the lobby, Costulas, who has a radio show on WPPJ, set up for a live station interview with Pierre before his performance with himself and WPPJ General Manager, Kayla Seybert.

"In literally eight hours we had a little impromptu acoustic show with Justin Pierre," Costulas said.

Coming to Point Park, Pierre was hot off of a random performance at the dinosaur outside of the Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland and according to Pierre, that is what this tour, which he is calling The Dino Trail, is all about.

"It's a different experience, [the music] is played badly and out of tune," he joked. "I'm just hanging out with humans and doing random stuff."

After their last hugely successful record, "Even If It Kills Me," Motion City Soundtrack went back into the studio to record My Dinosaur Life. At its finish, they were all set to go on tour, however the band's drummer, Tony Thaxton, broke his arm, leaving the band unable to tour in promotion of the album. Pierre, however, was not going to let that stop him and The Dino Trail was born.

Starting in Detroit and then traveling to Columbus before he moved along to Pittsburgh, Pierre plans on spending the next few weeks traveling around the eastern part of the "United States of Awesome," as he called it and playing wherever the tweets tell him to go. Earlier today, Pierre played at Marywood University in Scranton, Pa., and will be heading up to Boston later tonight. From there he plans on traveling to Philadelphia, New York and finishing up the tour in Washington D.C. The location of his shows will remain unknown until he gets to his destination and posts the information on Twitter.

During his Point Park performance, which lasted just under an hour, Pierre played seven of Motion City Soundtrack's most popular songs, opening with one of his personal favorites, "Attractive Today" as well as playing the band's newest single, "Disappear." Pierre appeared to really enjoy himself during the brief set, dancing around and joking with audience members. He also encouraged everyone to sing along, in case he forgot the words.

"I can remember commercials from the 1970s, but I can't remember the lyrics to the songs I write," he told the audience.

At the end of his set, Pierre made a point to thank the audience for coming out and for supporting him, since playing acoustic sets admittedly makes him a little nervous. He then stuck around to sign autographs and take pictures with everyone before leaving for Scranton.

"Point Park was amazing," he later tweeted. "Thanks to everyone who came out! I got WAY into it! SOOOOO FUN!!! Best turnout of the tour so far!!!"

One of the audience members that Pierre joked with was freshman broadcasting major Jenni Bloodworth. Pierre recognized Bloodworth, who donned one of the band's T-shirts, for knowing one part of a song that no one else seemed to know. Though she had seen the band before, this concert was extra exciting for Bloodworth.

"I was so shocked," she said. "I moved my whole schedule around [for this.]"

Because of the short notice, the turn out of the concert was entirely based on the power of social networking. Costulas said he posted the first tweet and Facebook update about the event at noon and was pleased with the large number of students who showed up.

"I think that people can do anything with Twitter," he said.

However, Costulas was more pleased with the fact that Pierre himself showed up.

"This has been one of the best days of my life," he said. "I got to sit down and have a conversation with my idol."

My Dinosaur Life hits stores on Jan. 19, 2010.