The Used Kick Off Their Fall Tour in Pensacola

The Used - Pensacola — The Used at the Pensacola Bay Center [Photo: Scott Raymer]

The Used is currently on tour with A Day to Remember supporting the latter’s Just Some More Shows tour. On Oct 1^st, the bands opened the tour at the Pensacola Bay Center, which was the only show in ADTR’s home state of Florida. Unlike most bands who have been playing larger Florida markets like Miami, Tampa, Orlando, and Jacksonville, ADTR chose Pensacola for the first stop of their tour. This turned out to a prophetic choice since Hurricane Ian devastated the lower part of the state two days prior while the Florida panhandle escaped unscathed.

Two years ago, I had a musical awakening discovering a plethora of bands from the early 2000’s. Bands like My Chemical Romance, Jimmy Eat World, and Panic! At the Disco suddenly made their way onto my playlist. Another of these bands was The Used. After reviewing their latest album, Heartwork (Deluxe) in 2021, I instantly became obsessed with the band subsequently seeing them perform for the first time earlier this year in Orlando. I was elated after seeing the announcement that they would be opening for ADTR in my current hometown of Pensacola.

A near sellout crowd at the Pensacola Bay Center was filled with fans from all over the region with many traveling several hours to see the show. 2022 is the 20^th anniversary of The Used’s self-titled debut album so it was appropriate that the band started their set with “A Box Full of Sharp Objects” from said album. Typically, when I’m photographing a show from the pit, I become so hyper-focused that I’m oblivious to the music. But this was The Used, so I had total awareness of the music, screaming the words to the songs while snapping pictures along the way.

If you search the band on Wikipedia, you will see them classified as emo, screamo, post hardcore, punk rock, alternative rock and pop punk. Before singing “The Bird and the Worm” vocalist Bert McCraken commented “We’ve been a fucking emo band for 22 years, we’re not going anywhere”.

He shared prior to the tour, “I’m proud of where we’ve come from. In my mind, ‘emo’ has become a more honored term. What band is devoid of emotion? No band that I like. Tagging a band as ‘emotional’ isn’t really such a bum out, because I’ve always been quite an emotional guy. If you were to have asked me, like 5-6 years ago, I’d have said we’re a rock band or a punk band, but in the past couple of years, seeing the resurgence of this kind of punk rock/early 2000s music, I think it’s cool to be part of a huge genre that was pretty banging.”

The great thing about a Used performance is the way McCraken interacts with the crowd. In between virtually every song he energizes fans via his wit, sarcasm, craziness and brief moments of seriousness with plenty of superlatives thrown in along the way. The Used may be emo but there are still those moments when they are definitely punk as well.

Several of the band’s albums were represented on the setlist including The Used, In Love and Death, Lies for the Liars, Artwork and Heartwork. At one point McCracken said we were going to have a sing-along. However, he was too late in his remarks because the whole night was a sing-along from the very first song. The set was only 45 minutes long, which flew by way too fast. This however allowed the band to focus their song selection to the core Used songs that everyone loves. Songs like “I Caught Fire”, “The Taste of Ink”, “All That I’ve Got” and “Buried Myself Alive” had fans singing and dancing the whole show.

One would expect a thirty-something crowd to be in attendance, but it was anything but. Most of the crowd appeared to be in their twenties. There were three young girls dancing next to me that were most likely not even born when The Used was released. However, there was a fair share of older people in attendance as well including a man who was way too old to be crowd surfing.

The show ended in pure punk fashion with McCraken throwing his mic on the stage floor after the last song “Pretty Handsome Akward” leaving the stage without uttering a word. It was a fitting conclusion to a fantastic show by Bert McCracken, Jeph Howard, Dan Whitesides, and Joey Bradford. I have seen a lot of great bands perform in the last few years, but I don’t know of any that have surpassed a performance by The Used. There are still plenty of opportunities to see the band throughout the month of October (See below for dates).

My focus was on The Used, but I would be remiss not to mention the other bands who performed. Magnolia Park, Movements and the headliner A Day to Remember all put on great shows. This was my first time seeing each of them live and each left a lasting impression on me. Below are a small selection of photos of each of these bands.