Brixton Academy
Saturday 15th January 2005
Reviewed by Cars
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the gig!
I decided to get over it though - afterall I had a good time at the last Used gig at the Astoria last year (click here to read the review!) & had heard whispers that My Chemical Romance would be appearing instead.
No such luck! The first support band were a band called The Lucky Nine. The people I was with didn't know who they were except that we thought the singer had the same hairstyle as the singer from Hundred Reasons. There's a good reason he had that as it was the actual same hair. Yep, it WAS the singer from Hundred Reasons with his new band. Two words - bloody awful!
Second band was not My Chemical Romance as I'd hoped but My Code Name Is Milo. No no no. That's all I can bring myself to say on them.
At 9.50 The Used appeared onstage to the tune of Take It Away. Great show opener & I was glad I'd been sent circle tickets by mistake as it looked pretty rough downstairs (with Bert having to calm it down after 2 songs)
Being not a huge fan of their second album I was not into the newer stuff as much as the fantastic debut material but enjoyed them none the less. Also, as with the last gig I was disappointed they yet again played The Taste Of Ink so early on (4th song). It would be the ultimate show closer!! That song would make an 80 year old bounce!
Bert sounded much better than the Astoria gig, much clearer & much healthier! Though still using much of the same speeches in between tracks (sadly the sickly Blue & Yellow introduction is still in tact!)
All of tracks translated pretty well from studio to live with exception of I'm A Fake which was painful to listen to.
After playing 9 songs they went off to return for an encore of Maybe Memories. I must say an encore of one song (however fantastic that song may be - & it is!) is poor. As is the fact that the show ended at 10.50 - exactly one hour after they arrived. For a full headlining tour that is pretty damn lame.
However my only real gripe about the night is the amount of idiots this band seems to attract. Before I get hate mail I must point out I am judging this on the "fans" that were directly around me during gig & who I shared a tube home with. Quite honestly they made me wish for the mooning smelly fat man back! There appared to be two types of Used fan - the Kelly Osbourne wannabes (HELLO-he dumped her) & the ones that think they're really "out there". Like "ooo, how interesting am I with my I don't care what I look like individuality?". Except it's not individuality - I bet they spend 20 times longer getting ready than the people they're trying to rebel against. More than that though - there appeared to be very little friendliness. Most metal gigs are full of the nicest people you could wish to meet - scary looking but nice! This one though the people appeared to be so self obsessed & more interested in looking cool for liking the Used than for actually liking the Used! The fact that people were crowd surfing & being pulled over the barriers during Blue & Yellow speaks volumes!
Sorry to anybody that doesn't apply to - I may have just been unlucky with the people near me (or still stunned I had used £5 of credit sending silly texts throughout the gig to Slipknot Chick a.k.a. Dead Kittens from the message board who was downstairs!)
In summary I DID enjoy them very much - I think Bert is a great frontman with plenty of energy. The band were very tight - pretty much faultless & they have done some incrediable songs.
Highlights were Take It Away, Taste Of Ink & the wonderful Blue & Yellow.
Rock on Bert - I salute you!
8 out of 10
Setlist:
Take It Away
Listening
I Caught Fire
The Taste Of Ink
All That I've Got
Blue & Yellow
On My Own
A Box Full Of Sharp Objects
I'm A Fake
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Maybe Memories
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