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The Used
Forum Melbourne
Thursday 7 August
Hands Like Houses is the supporting act tonight and delivers a supercharged, emotionally rich set that showcases their evolution and new energy with vocalist Josh Raven. Their performance is tight and atmospheric, blending old fan favourites with fresh tracks from their latest album ‘Atmospherics’. Raven’s vocals soared, adding depth and intensity to the band’s signature powerful sound full of raw emotion. They throw in a memorable cover of Chris Issac’s ‘Wicked Game’ with a heavy rock twist.
The stage opens up with a cinema screen featuring an old television counting down to a nostalgic montage of imagery and videos from The Used ‘Lies For The Liars’ third album era including behind the scenes footage of studio sessions, life on tour and artwork coming to life straight off the CD cover.
The screen falls and the band is revealed with explosive energy and screams as they begin with their opening track ‘The Ripper’.
“You are the lucky ones because this is our very first night on this Australian tour – we’re so happy to be starting this in Melbourne!” Exclaims Bert McCracken. “I want everyone in here to be your child-like self once again. Let’s act like tonight is our last night on this planet!”
It’s night one of three special performances top celebrate the band’s 25th anniversary tour featuring full album playthroughs of their beloved albums. Tonight, they’re playing all of ‘Lies For The Liars’ front to back which is a special treat because some of the songs have never even been played live before, let alone in full album order.
Continuing with singles ’Pretty Handsome Awkward’ and ‘The Bird And The Worm’, the band proves that they’re still at the top of their game after all these years feeling more alive than ever with a palpable chemistry and charisma to create an emotional and cathartic celebration of an album that meant so much to fans.
“We’ve been an emo band for 25 fucking years! We never broke up, we never took a break, we’ve been here the whole fucking time,” shouts McCracken at the top of his voice.
They slow things way down with some deep cuts including ‘Earthquake’ and ‘Hospital’ having many die-hard fans singing along with tears in their eyes. The energy levels surge with McCracken’s signature guttural screams and playful crowd interactions on ‘Paralyzed’ and ‘Liar Liar (Burn In Hell)’.
The Australian release of ‘Lies For The Liars’ included the bonus track ‘Pain’ so they add it into the setlist tonight before the final track.
“I want you to leave tonight feeling inspired to create something of your own,” says McCracken, before the set concludes with the final track of the album called ‘Smother Me’.
Fans hand around after the band leaves in hopes of an encore but for those wanting more, they’ll have to come back for nights two and three to hear them play their first two albums ‘Self Titled’ and ‘In Love And Death’.
Words by Michael Prebeg
