The
Used brought their massive 11 date UK tour to
a close tonight at the Academy in Bristol and
after many years of trying but failing to see
The Used live due to them pulling out of festivals
or myself double booking when they have toured
in the past I finally managed to see them tonight
and what an experience it was even if the venue
was only at half capacity.
First band up tonight were local rockers Decade
who hail from nearby Bath but sadly for Decade
their local following did not follow them to the
gig as they played to a couple of hundred people
and the crowd were
extremely stale with their arms folded struggling
to take in the music that was being played in
front of them, however that did not stop Alex
Sears, Connor Fathers, Dan Clarke, Harry Norton
and Joe Marriner putting everything into their
30 minute set.
Decade kicked off with the ever so riff-tastic
‘Brainfreeze’ and then went on to
play a number of songs from their ep’s and
their Spinefarm records debut album ‘Good
Luck’ which consisted of ‘I Don’t
Car’, ‘Callous’, ‘Woke’,
‘Coffin’, ‘Fake Teeth’,
‘Fool’s Gold’ and the ever so
appropriate ‘British Weather’ considering
that it was lashing down with rain outside.
Through
the set Alex Sears made a lot of effort interacting
with the crowd telling them that this is the first
time they have ever played the Academy 1 and it
is a privilege to be playing it supporting The
Used, he also asked the crowd if anyone has seen
them before or bought their album which saw only
a handful of hands raised but it is safe to say
that after the explosive energy and general passion
they put into their set that a fair few people
walked away as newly converted Decade fans.
Next
up were the main support band Landscapes a fivepiece
who hail from Somerset, and I personally had no
idea what to expect but within minutes I was loving
what Landscapes had to offer as they unleashed
their hardcore sound, with the whole band unleashing
energy throughout the whole set however it was
frontman Shaun Milton who had the majority of
the crowd’s attention as he played a lot
of the set running down the middle between the
crowd and the stage whilst dodging the numerous
security staff and photographers, and when he
was on stage he was launching himself in the air
at pretty much any given opportunity.
Through
their 30 minute set Landscapes managed to squeeze
in 9 songs which featured the outstanding yet
long running ‘Cemetery’ which was
them followed up by ‘D.R.E.A.M’, ‘No
Love’, ‘Embrace’, ‘Providence’,
‘The Coming Of Age’, ‘Reminiscence’,
‘Epilogy’ and the aggressive set closer
‘Paradox’.
The crowd fell in love instantly with Landscapes
tonight and it was easy to see why moments after
they took to the stage due to their energetic
performance and high quality riffage, the band
signed to Pure Noise Records back in 2013
where they re-released their debut album ‘Life
Gone Wrong’ so album number two must be
closely around the corner.
Next up were The Used the band that everyone had
been eagerly waiting for and they did not disappoint
as the band stormed the stage to a mad flurry
of strobe lights as they kicked the show off with
‘Maybe Memories’ which went down an
absolute storm and before the song was over Bert
McCracken had already worked up a sweat and quickly
ripped his hoody off to give himself a bit of
freedom.
The
energy levels throughout the whole gig were fantastic
as Quinn Allman and Jeph Howard were storming
back and forth across the stage playing their
guitar and bass whilst drummer Branden Steineckert
was beating the hell out of his kit whilst throwing
drum sticks into the crowd at nearly every opportunity
and as for Bert McCracken well he just came across
like a man possessed, jumping and charging all
over the stage whilst also doing his trademark
singing move where he sings whilst facing the
side of the stage rather than the fans in front
of him.
Quite
early on in the set the show had to be stopped
for a couple of minutes due to a girl in the crowd
punching someone else in the face so they security
had to intervene and eject her from the show,
however Bert McCracken noticed what was going
on and demanded that the security put the girl
on stage and they followed his orders, at this
point the girl was crying her eyes out and various
body parts were spilling out of her overly baggy
top and then for the next minute Bert McCracken
ripped into her calling her a bully and telling
her that she has to spend the rest of the show
on stage so everyone can see what a bully she
is, luckily for the girl this humiliations lasted
for only a couple of minutes yet must of felt
like a life time for her because as soon as The
Used cracked on with the next song she stormed
off stage and left the venue much to Bert’s
annoyance.
Considering The Used have been together for a
good 15 years and have 6 albums under their belts
I felt their set tonight was pretty short and
considering their latest album ‘Imaginary
Enemy’ was released less than a year ago
they only managed to play one song from that album
which was ‘Revolution’ with the rest
of the set being made up of older songs
but luckily they were all big fan favourites which
made pretty much the whole show a massive sing-a-long
for the 800 fans in attendance.
The likes of ‘Take It Away’, ‘The
Bird And The Worm’, ‘I Caught A Fire’,
‘All That I’ve Got’, ‘The
Best Of Me’ went down a storm but it was
‘The Taste Of Ink’ which was played
half way through the set which gained the biggest
reaction due to the fact that the song is a massive
sing-a-long number and is also the song which
gained the band the most commercial success.
Bert
McCracken was on top form tonight and was forever
cracking jokes and having banter with the crowd
between songs, even telling them to shove their
phones and cameras up their ass at one point after
getting fed up of seeing to many electronic gadgets
up in the air, he also took some time to pay respect
to guitarist Quinn Allman who is currently on
hiatus from the band.
The show came to an end with ‘A Box Full
Of Sharp Objects’ which featured snippets
of Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’
and was topped off with Rage Against The Machine’s
‘Killing In The Name’ which featured
an
explosive set of guest vocals from Landscapes
Shaun Milton who did his best to outdo Bert McCraken
by once again spending his time in the crowd laying
down his heavy vocals.
Overall tonight was a good night as Decade did
a job of warming the crowd up whilst Landscapes
got the crowd in the mood for a bit of moshing
and The used came and conquered as they had the
crowd in the palm of their hands from start to
finish even having full control of the mosh pit
getting circle pits and wall of deaths kicking
off.
Decade 3/5
Landscapes 4/5
The Used 5/5
Review By Trigger
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