Reviews Show Review

Show Review:: The Used 4/28

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The Used with Every Time I Die, Marmozets, & The Eeries
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Upstate Concert Hall; Clifton Park, NY

I’m going to be pretty blunt here – at the time I was writing this, Age of Ultron came out in just about two days, so I was finding it pretty difficult to be excited over anything else. But, that doesn’t mean it was impossible. For instance, say, hypothetically, one of my favorite bands from high school was playing a show a few miles away. That would do the trick. Besides, by the time door opened, there were still, like, 48 more hours before The Avengers premiere – might as well kill some time, eh?

All comic-based sarcasm aside, this was a show that had been on my radar for some time; The Used are screamo royalty, while Every Time I Die have been on my “must-see” list for ages. I had heard rumblings about Marmozets here and there, and opener The Eeries were one of those bands allowing me a fresh, new first impression. Kicking off the show, they made a fast statement.

Taking the stage promptly at 7:30, the LA four-piece entered under low lights with The Addams Family theme song pumping through the PA system. Eerie indeed. It wasn’t much into their set before they began to turn heads, their music a blend of Californian
surf-rock and frenzied punk. If The Pink Spiders and old-school Weezer spent a
weekend together in Long Beach, you’d get The Eeries.

It took a bit of time before the venue started to fill up, so those who missed The Eeries had some bad luck. But anyone who was late for Marmozets next seriously missed out.

Pegged as “Britain’s most exciting young band” by Kerrang, they upheld this reputation. Raw, sharp, and bone-shaking, their time onstage was intense. While their accents may have sounded proper, their performance was far from upright or polite. Becca MacIntyre’s vocals were fierce and feral, while support from the band was just as untamed.

Every Time I Die have made a second home for themselves in the Albany area. Hailing from Buffalo, playing in the Capitol Region is still, somewhat, a hometown show. And they made sure to give their neighbors a treat. From start to finish, they held their energy and intensity at an 11 and showed that, for as glad as we were to have them back, they were equally glad to be there.

Before they played, a few press and venue people were standing off to the side, and I was able to catch a glimpse of The Used’s setlist. With the exception of “Cry” and “Revolution,” the bulk of the night would consist of the first two albums. No offense to the later albums, but those two are unmatchable. It’s probably more about when I first heard them rather than the albums themselves, but opening the night with “Maybe Memories” brought on a flood of awesome high school experience.

Though they played a relatively short set (12 songs, as a headliner), they made the best of it. Or, you could say, they savored every moment of it. *crickets* “The Taste of Ink,” arguably their most recognizable track, was one of the true highlights of the night – performed perfectly, with a huge crowd response. Where the chorus is an anthemic singalong, closer “A Box Full of Sharp Objects” matched the former’s energy, but instead of the audience singing McCracken’s words back to him, they erupted into a three-minute
hurricane of noise and vigor to conclude the night.

The Used have been performing for more than a decade, and I’ve been lucky enough to see them at various points during their career – back on the Taste of Chaos Tour, a year or two later on the Get A Life Tour, a few times on Warped, last year with Taking Back Sunday, and then again on Tuesday, and they’re a band that just gets continues to get stronger.

Setlist; 04/28/2015.
Maybe Memories
Take It Away
The Bird and the Worm
Listening
Cry
I Caught Fire
The Taste of Ink
All That I’ve Got
Revolution
On My Own
Pretty Handsome Awkward
A Box Full Of Sharp Objects

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