The Used – Scala – 17-06-2014 | Live Review

Credit: JPS Images

The only support for tonight is Arcane Roots, who are not a band we would usually associate with The Used and neither does the crowd. Despite their best efforts and high energy on stage, its only toward the end of their short set that crowd start to get involved. It’s clear that tonight is all about The Used.

Fresh from Download Festival and playing their first headline show since 2012 The Used take to the stage. Starting their set with ‘Cry‘ from their latest album Imaginary Enemy. The second vocalist Bert McCracken steps onto the stage the crowd starts screaming and it doesn’t stop till the end on their set. Then they go straight into ‘Take It Away’, which goes down amazingly with the crowd.

“I see a lot of dedicated and die hard Used fans from up here” Bert starts  “lemme tell you one thing I know is true, We all are The fucking Used” he finished and just smiles at the audience. Its one of the most genuine smiles we’ve seen on a front man in a long time. “I wanna dedicate this next song especially, to everybody whose stuck by our side since day one,” says Bert before launching into ‘I Caught Fire‘. Bert’s vocals could not be more on point tonight, and he captures the audience with his unique dance skills. After the brilliantly orchestrated ending to ‘I Caught Fire‘, Bert makes a speech about self help (which he goes back into toward the end of the night again) “When we fall down, we know the only way to learn is to pick ourselves back up again” which is the massage from tonight’s show. He then goes on to tell the crowd that they are all his new best friends, he really seems to care a lot for the fans. His smile on stage is contagious and we cannot help but smile and sing(quite badly) along. Not giving the crowd a chance to cheer the intro to ‘The Taste Of Ink’.

Credit: JPS Images

After getting into the crowd during ‘Buried Myself Alive‘, Bert continues to talk about how great regular people are, which then takes a turn for the funny and awkward when Bert says “I feel like, I’m that one girl from the Bukkake porno. And all the love is coming right at my face!” And then they go on to play ‘Revolution‘. Some of the fans had signs with the word “Revolution” on them. “That was so fucking special and awesome thank you,” are the only words Bert had to describe what just happened. And then one of the venue alarms goes off and we are told to evacuate the venue, to which Bert responds with”please don’t ever leave,” and “we’re not going anywhere motherfucker,” and waves at the ceiling.

During ‘Blood On My Hands‘ the crowd (at Bert‘s request) have a few circle pits going. After that we are made to pinky promise we will come back and see The Used when they come back, and they go into ‘Pretty Handsome Awkward‘. When the song comes in the wall of death Bert just set up comes together and the crowd go wild.

Credit: JPS Images

As we wait for the encore the usual chants of “one more song” turn into chants of “ten more songs” and we would gladly watch The Used play all night if it came to it. But sadly they only do a two song encore. ‘On My Own‘ is played beautifully on acoustic guitar, and with the crowd singing along it’s becomes more emotional.

The band then tease us with the intro to Nirvana‘s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit‘ before launching into ‘Box Of Sharp Objects‘. One last chance to go absolutely crazy and the fans take it. Finishing the track instead of the album outro they play Rage Against The Machine‘s ‘Killing In The Name Of‘.

Tonight The Used were something else, it’s one of the best shows we’ve seen in a long time and we will be holding them to their pinky promos to come back soon.

Review by: Kayla Elliot
Photos by: Joe Strudwick/ JPS Images