Emo fans in Maine received a treat on Wednesday when The Used brought their summer tour to State Theatre in Portland, ME.
Before the classic emo jams started, up-and-coming singer Amira Elfeky opened the evening. Though many on hand may not have known of her, she quickly won over fans. It was a dark and heavy set, a complete shift in tone for the later two bands. Audience members still loved her sound, as she left the stage with a big applause.
Story of the Year was next, with a 45-minute set that fans loved. This wasn’t the first time Story of the Year joined The Used on tour. The bands toured together in 2003, along with My Chemical Romance, days after Story of the Year released their debut record, Page Avenue. That album went on to play a large part in their career and was prominent in their setlist.Even while the band played tracks mostly from their first record, they found a way to incorporate some of their later songs into the setlist. However, it was clear that the crowd resonated more with the older tunes. Kicking off their set with “And The Hero Drown” was a good starting point for the group as it got the energy going early. Story of the Year slowed things down a bit early into their set with “Anthem Of Our Dying Day” before performing a couple of later tracks, “We Don’t Care Anymore” and “Real Life.”
The energy returned with the final three songs, starting with “In The Shadows,” a track from the debut LP. They closed out the set with their biggest song, “Until the Day I Die,” a song that catapulted the band into emo legends. Needless to say, the track had almost everybody in the theater singing along, and many phones were in hand so fans could record the performance.
Before stepping on stage, The Used tried a small trick on the audience during its entrance. After strobe lights flashed in the back of the stage, lighting up a sizeable metallic sign that read “The Used,” a voice came over the speakers telling fans, “Tonight’s performance has been canceled.” Fans weren’t buying it, and the voice became warped as the first notes of “Pretty Handsome Awkward” began being played as the band hopped on stage.It was a fun start to the show that turned out to be an interesting and entertaining set put on by The Used. As lead singer Bert McCracken pointed out late in the group’s set, The Used has been an emo band for 24 years, and the group hasn’t broken up, hasn’t fought, and they’ve been around forever. In that time, McCracken continues to be one the more unique lead singers, which was seen early into The Used’s performance on Wednesday.
After the first chorus of “Pretty Handsome Awkward,” McCracken told fans to follow his directions. Those instructions consisted of audience members getting their middle fingers out and pointing them right at the singer and chanting “f*** you” right back at him. That wouldn’t be the first time on the night that McCracken encouraged that behavior from the audience. Later in the set, McCracken said he finds letting out a loud “boo!” as a major stress reliever. So rather than give the band applause, he encouraged fans to stick out their middle fingers and give the band a loud and hardy “boo.” As McCracken stated, “It makes us feel good!”
Like Story of the Year, The Used performed mostly from its older catalog – which was a great decision. Fourteen of the band’s 19 songs performed came from their first three albums, as they incorporated newer tracks later in the performance. It was a good way for the group to connect and harness the fan’s energy during the performance, as the crowd resonated with those tunes.
After the band initially closed with “A Taste Of Ink,” the group left the stage, but many fans chanted for more tunes. The Used obliged with three more tracks, including ending with what McCracken called “The best song ever written,” “A Box Full of Sharp Objects” from the group’s first album, and the audience loved the performance. As the band waved goodbye to the crowd, even throwing out roses to fans, it was clear that fans wanted more. With McCracken’s earlier statements in the set, fans are almost guaranteed to get their wish soon.
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