Fifteen years of The Used

The Used is currently on tour playing their first two albums, The Used (self-titled) and In Love and Death, front to back two consecutive nights in honor of their 15 years of being a band.

The Used was my shit back in middle school. Especially In Love and Death, although I love their first album as well. Weirdly enough, those two nights in Boston finished up the night before I received a Master’s Degree, because that’s how life works sometimes. You relive middle school before being told you have to be an adult. It happens.

They played at the House of Blues, so even though I didn’t get in line early night 1 (I had fully intended on being in the pit and moshing) I bought food and was able to get early entry. So I somehow ended up on the barricade and didn’t complain.

I was pretty up-close-and-personal with the stage, so I got a good view of some awesome decorated mannequins.

Bert McCracken has KILLER stage presence. I had only ever seen them live once before at a festival a few years back, and even then the only thing I really remembered was him telling the crowd to make a Wall of Death and I noped all the way back to the food vendors fearing for my life. But seeing him at this show, I was so beyond impressed with how well he was working the crowd the entire night.

Some musicians talk a little bit between songs, and some don’t bother talking at all. Bert was all about it, and even during songs he was getting alllll the crowd participation. I haven’t seen stage presence that great in a long time, if ever.

After the band walked offstage, I knew there had to be an encore of some kind. Naturally, they came back to play the hidden track, “Choke Me.” This was my one chance to mosh for both nights, so I left the barricade and raced for the pit. It was kinda a sad pit in all honesty. I think they tried to open it too much because there was a lot of space and it mostly looked like people dancing on their own rather than actually moshing. I went crazy anyway, because of course the song calls for it, so it was worth it.

I was more excited about night 2, and because of graduation I had my sister with me and we came straight from dinner with our parents, so there was no way we could be in the front. Unfortunately she was opposed to moshing, so we kinda stood off to the side where I was able to go nuts on my own and she could laugh at me.

My plan the whole night was to try to crowdsurf to “Sound Effects and Overdramatics,” one of my favorites. However, when I finally found some dudes who were throwing people up to surf, I watched as the previous two girls got dropped on their way toward the stage. The crowd was predominantly female, so not the best crowd for a surf. I walked back, slightly defeated, to my sister, where she told me how I had just missed two girls beating the crap out of each other where we were standing. Well then.

Soon enough the album was over. (But not before the entire crowd recited the opening lines to “I’m a Fake,” to which my sister kept yelling “Is this a cult?! This is a cult!”)

There’s no hidden track on In Love and Death, so what was the plan?

Oh right, they hadn’t done the Wall of Death yet.

I hear them coming back onstage and grab my sister’s hand. “I know what song this is! I know what song this is!” I run to the bar area dragging her with me, getting as far out of the danger zone as possible. If I was afraid of the Wall of Death, I can only imagine her fear.

And then they started in on “Pretty Handsome Awkward.” I called it. We watched from a safe distance and she got a kick out of watching people run at each other head-on.

All in all it was a good two nights. Amazing band live. Unbelievable stage presence. The pit was a little lacking for me, but the band made up for it. That’s important too, right?