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THE USED
Live @ Irving Plaza
NYC, NY, 02.05.03 - 02.06.03
"I cant believe my pubes have been hanging out this whole time!"
The Used, paired up with screamo buddies Finch, The Movie Life and My Chemical Romance not only sold out two nights at New York Citys Irving Plaza but pulled quite an interesting group of attendees out of the bitter cold and snow this month.
Sounding much stronger and more self-assured than six months ago on the Warped Tour, The Useds live show just keeps getting better. This was evidenced by the floor beneath me bouncing up and down so intensely that it took extra concentration to walk through the venue. I positioned myself against a wall and looked around for some "oh shit" handles (like the ones you put your death grip on in a cab) and waited for the room to collapse into the coat check area a floor below.
The Used set the tone on both nights with "Choke Me," the hidden and heaviest track off their self-titled 2002 release ("Youre so crazyyyyyyy!"). "Pieces Mended," "Bulimic" and "The Taste of Ink" kept the crowd bouncing, moshing, and sending various clothing items flying off and on to the stage. With crowd surfers flying as high as three feet above their heads, the hands of the crowd never came down; a technique mandatory to passing the unending flow of surfers.
Freshly shaven front man Bert McCracken held the attention of both sold out crowds not only with two nights of powerful performances but also with random commentary ["Fuck George Bush"], a few bad jokes, admissions of pubic hair made public, his love of music and of course his signature sinister mocking laugh. Oh, and let us not forget the human water fountain and onstage back flips. Wednesday night Bert invited a fan on stage to perform a follow up back flip and Thursday night he took on a dare from guitarist Quinn and conquered the front flip. The real show stealer however was bassist Jeph abandoning his instrument at the end of the night to surf the crowd.
If you took your eyes off the stage for a moment you may have noticed the celebrities dangling off of the VIP balcony including band sweetheart Kelly Osbourne, Max Weinberg and kids, Andrew WK [who announced "I feel so dirty and I love it!"]. Also rumored in attendance were Matt Pinfield, Much Music diva Juliya and Sonny from P.O.D. I overheard someone say "dude, half of Warped Tour is here!"
Bottom line? The two nights were all about the music, a hypothesis proven by witnessing the crowd sing every word of every song back to the band; exact replicas of The Useds previously recorded screams wailed out to a T.
Later in the night, after successfully commanding the audience to form a hug pit, Bert slowed things down a bit [but not for long]. "Prepare to be very, very sad and very, very lonely. This song is called "On My Own."" This was followed by a dedication to "all the old people in the balcony, you may recognize this song. Its an old one by the Rolling Stones called "A Box Full of Sharp Objects." Wrapping the evening up Thursday with their current single "Buried Myself Alive" and closing the show with "Say Days Ago," half of the venue cleared out, 50% of the ticket holders hanging on for Finch. I let go of my death grip to the wall and filed out a very satisfied customer. All in all, The Useds live show has come a long way in a short time and I look forward to seeing these guys again very soon. |
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