No one can accuse SCOPE of lacking stamina. After Thursday night’s Dierks Bentley show, the organization continues to provide aural entertainment in the form of tonight’s Motion City Soundtrack concert.

Part of the UI’s annual RiverFest celebration, the free performance begins at 8 p.m. in the IMU Main Lounge.

“Motion City Soundtrack appeals to a RiverFest audience and a large college audience,” said Clark Bradshaw, a UI senior and SCOPE’s public-relations marketing coordinator. “[Motion City Soundtrack is] not too crazy. It’s easily digestible.”

Bassist Matt Taylor shares Bradshaw’s feelings about Motion City Soundtrack’s college audience appeal, though with his tongue comfortably nuzzled in his cheek.

“Our songs rarely have any money, they procrastinate until the night before term papers are due, and they skip class waaay too often,” he wrote in an e-mail.

Motion City Soundtrack has released two albums since its 2003 début, I Am the Movie: Commit This to Memory in 2005, and, most recently, 2007’s Even If It Kills Me. The band is writing songs for its fourth album.

“I feel like the music and the lyrics fight each other to the death and finally the match comes to an end with a tie by decision,” Taylor wrote in his e-mail. “I think everyone has a light side and a dark side. Our songs do, too.”

Motion City Soundtrack, which counts Ben Folds and Weezer among its influences, considers Minneapolis home.

“I think the cold weather forcing people indoors has inspired us more than I realize or am willing to admit,” he said.

In the band’s infancy, it toured with the All American Rejects and Fall Out Boy. Yet not all of those audiences were familiar with Motion City Soundtrack’s music or even the band’s name.

“We were in New Orleans in the spring of ’03 with the All American Rejects,” Taylor said. “[A poster] said ‘All American Rejects plus Motion Man.’ Motion Man? Really? We’ve gotten a lot of strange versions of our name, but that one still wins. I’m looking forward to the next one to take the Motion Man crown.”

In 2004, Blink 182 invited Motion City Soundtrack on a tour through Europe and Japan.

“Japan is the best place on Earth,” Taylor said. “It’s full of wonderful people, phenomenal food, bright colors, and so much cutting-edge technology. Bidets everywhere. That’s incredible. It’s an amazingly efficient culture in general.”

Remembering last year’s free RiverFest concert, which featured Quietdrive, Bradshaw advised fans to arrive half an hour to an hour before tonight’s show’s scheduled start.

“[Motion City Soundtrack puts] on a really great show,” he said. “The crowd gets really into it, which makes the whole concert better. Everyone is singing along, and it is feel-good music.”