The Used headlined a crowded show at the Casino Ballroom in Hampton Beach, NH with support from Story of the Year and Amira.The first opener of the night was Amira. She is a newer artist with not as much of a following as the other two bands on this lineup, so automatically she has big shoes to fill taking the stage first. Amira and her band did a great job at hyping up the crowd and getting them involved in their set. Her soft and melodic vocals are contrasted with the heavy music that matched the tone of the other two bands. There was plenty of energy and crowd involvement from this group and the performance was not lacking.
Next up, was the band Story of the Year. This band has been a staple in the emo/pop-punk music scene for decades right along the headliners with hits like “Tear Me To Pieces”, “War”, “Until the Day I Die” and more. It was clear that the crowd was excited to see them from the moment they stepped onto stage. The band played a mix of songs from their long discography from the classic hits from years ago to songs off their latest release, including the songs listed above. The band’s sound was spot on from their released music and the crowd could be heard singing along to the songs. There was plenty of crowd surfing, moshing, and dancing from the fans. Any fan would have been thrilled to see this performance and enjoyed it thoroughly.
Finally it was time for the stars of the night, The Used. The moment they stepped on stage, screams and cheered from the crowd filled the room. They opened their performance with their hit song “Pretty Handsome Awkward” and the crowd could be seen screaming along, crowd surfing, jumping around and anything else you can think of for crowd performance. The band played songs from every album, sprinkling in a few songs from their latest release “MEDZ” and leaving their biggest hit for the end of the night.
The crowd could be heard singing along to a handful of songs throughout the night but the sound of the fans singing along to the band’s song “Taste of Ink” put all others to shame. The crowd was singing along so loudly that lead vocalist, Bert McCracken, even stopped singing certain lines to let the crowd take over. In between songs was filled with banter about overcoming depression by letting aggression out by booing at the band being encouraged and other chaos and crowd involvement being encouraged like everyone flipping Bert off and chanting “Fuck You” before the band’s with that title off their latest album.
The band’s sound was spot on from all of their albums through the years, sounding the same all these twenty-four years later. The instrumentals and vocals did not miss a beat. There was something for everyone with this performance from the people who grew up with their first album, to new fans just discovering them with their latest release.
THE USED
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STORY OF THE YEAR
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