Photographs by Katrina Wong Shue.
With the first night coming to a close, I felt nothing but excitement in anticipation of a second evening with one of my favourite bands of all time playing one of my favourite and life changing albums of all time. The second night that one of emo rock’s most important bands sold out The Danforth Music Hall was focused on the band’s 2004 album, In Love and Death.
The LA openers New Language also took to the stage for a second night, this time more focused on their set list than the crowd’s perception. The band was still as well cohered and played a set on par if not better than their first one.
Another reoccurring event between the two evenings was the nostalgic 90s and early 2000s music in between New Language and The Used’s sets. This time, songs from The Backstreet Boys, Spice Girls and N*Sync among others were coming from the Music Hall’s sound system.
In Similar fashion, The Used came out behind a backdrop influenced by the evening’s album artwork, this time complete with a giant glowing and beating heart. The heart raced faster as the band took their places before the shotgun intro of Take It Away exploded out of the speakers. On the second evening, the mosh pit was bigger and the crowd even louder, with many professions of their undying love to Bert and the band in between songs and singing from the crowd so loud that it almost drowned Bert’s voice. Bert seemed more playful than emotional in his banters like making jokes about having the worst sex ever before playing Cut Up Angels. The second evening also branched a little bit away from the album’s songs with the band covering bits of various songs from other artists including a Bob Marley medley in the middle of playing Lunacy Fringe. Their song Sound Effects And Overdramatics transformed the music hall into a pit of insanity holding the second largest mosh pit of the evening, people crowd surfing and every single head headbanging along to the heavy track. The intro to their final track off of In Love and Death, I’m a Fake was sung by the crowd adding to the personal atmosphere of the evening. The band closed the show with a wall of death to the sounds of their song Pretty Handsome Awkward off of their Lies for the Liars album accompanied by the night’s biggest and craziest mosh of the night.
The past two nights took me back to a time more lively and carefree while also reminding me how much time has passed and how much things have changed from the better. Both Used shows were similar to journeying back to Neverland like Robin Williams in Hook. It was hands down one of the most memorable nights of this year.
