By: Ashley Maceli

A sea of black-dyed hair and black sweatshirts crowded the House of Blues this past Friday to see a completely crazy show given by the ultimate rock band, The Used. The Used did not disappoint in giving an extraordinary show.

Drive A, an anarchist Green Day-wannabe band, opened. This generically bad rock band consisted of okay music, but terrible lyrics consisting mostly of “fuck you” and “fuck everything else.” Overall, this band was a terrible start to the show.

After Drive A, The Almost took the stage. Aaron Gillespie, drummer of Underoath, formed The Almost as a side project where he sings and plays guitar. The Almost played singles of their first album Southern Weather (Tooth & Nail, 2007) including “Say This Sooner” and “Southern Weather.”

They also played a lot of songs from their newest album, Monster Monster (Tooth & Nail, 2009) including “Monster” and “Monster, Monster.” Luckily the two songs were completely different; otherwise the excessive repitition would have been too much. Gillespie preached to the audience about his Christian beliefs before their final song. Gillespie tried to get others to sing along with the songs, yet no voices could be heard, making him exclaim “wow,” in disbelief at one point in the show. The Almost, a fairly new band, are okay overall but nothing special. Gillespie should have stuck with Underoath.

The Used opened up their set with a video montage of on-the-road band footage, along with some other random clips.  As the video ended, a giant black sheet fell from the ceiling displaying the band’s name in large white font along-side a giant picture of a syringe, similar to their new album cover for Artwork (Reprise Records, 2009). Finally, the band came on stage, making the crowd go into an instant mosh pit.

Front man Bert McCracken was just as insane as he is in other shows. From his infamous water spitting trick before “Take It Away,” to his silly, goofy side notes between songs, it is certain that any The Used show that you go to will not be like any other show you have seen.

The Used played some incredible old favorites such as the sweet rock ballad, “I Caught Fire” to some of their most famous songs, “Taste of Ink,” “Buried Myself Alive,” and “Blue and Yellow.” Some more great rock songs from their fulfilling album Artwork (Reprise, 2009) included the songs “Blood on My Hands,” “The Best of Me,” and “Come Undone,” which McCracken described as being a song about “hot sticky sex.” When The Used ended with one of their singles, “Pretty Handsome Awkward,” McCracken made the audience split like the Red Sea. He told the audience to push against the walls creating a large hole in the middle of the audience. McCracken told the audience to get ready to charge once the song started, and once the first powerful riff was played, the audience charged at each other, making the whole floor a brutal mosh pit, otherwise known as a “wall of death.” Best kind of end to a show as intense as this one was.

Any fan of The Used needs to see them in concert. They are one of those bands that probably do better live than on their numerous amazing albums. Word of warning though: stand towards the sides and back of the venue if you wish to not be squashed in a stampede mosh pit, and don’t stand in the very front if you don’t want Bert McCracken’s backwash on you.