On the second of two sold out nights in London, The Used (6) played their classic album In Love and Death in full. This was always going to be a special night for fans and was bound to remind a lot of tonight’s audience of their teenage years.
Opening with “Take It Away” things get off to a great start. Bert McCracken bounces around the stage filled with energy whilst the rest of the band sound incredibly tight. This energy is matched by a crowd screaming every word back. Following up with “I Caught Fire” and “Let It Bleed” is a great reminder how strong the opening to this album is but obviously it’s “All That I’ve Got” that provides the early highlight and is easily the biggest sing along of tonight.
However after this the problems with tonight soon become apparent as Bert stops to talk to the crowd for the fourth time tonight, after only four songs. This is something that continues for the entire set and whilst a lot of the fans seem to love what he is saying, it really kills the momentum of the set tonight. The end result is a 42 minute album taking nearly twice as long to get through because there are so many breaks. There’s no denying Bert’s onstage presence is entertaining for the most part but sadly it just makes things drag tonight a bit.
Whenever the band start playing again things immediately improve. In Love and Death is certainly an album that has stood the test of time and every song is greeted with the same reaction from the crowd. The band never set a foot wrong when playing the songs so it’s a shame that the constant stopping just hurt the overall experience tonight.
After finally finishing the album, The Used return for a brief but great encore of Pretty Handsome Awkward which certainly ends the night on a high. While it certainly wasn’t a bad gig, it’s still hard not to feel slightly disappointed with how the gig ended up. Less talking between every song would have given tonight a much better flow and the end result would have certainly been more enjoyable.
