My next tale begins (and ends) on a cold night in January back in 2003 when Utah's The Used landed in Birmingham.
One of my all time favourite gigs at one of my all time favourite venues. The Academy 2 in Birmingham is exactly what a gig venue should be, its hot, crowded and noisy - pretty much the ideal hunting ground for a band like The Used.
How I came to actually go to this gig was a bit of a last minute decision. I had previously heard a few songs off the first Used album and in all honesty, I wasn't overly impressed. A few of my mates already had their tickets so when the day of the gig rolled around I was faced with the decision to stay at home or go out.
So, after some convincing, I made the choice to order a ticket and go to the gig. Admittedly, my decision was probably partly down to the fact that my mates were already of legal drinking age so they could buy me beer!However, after only a couple of songs I knew I had made the right choice!
I had honestly not witnessed anything like what I saw that night. The raw emotion, passion and reckless energy that these four underachievers demonstrated on stage was unreal. Singer Bert Mccracken whipped the crowd into a frenzy with his unique mixture of emotive singing and raw visceral screaming which at times was almost too much.
As a kid watching this band bare their scars on stage with songs about serious drug addiction, abuse and broken homes helped me to realise that music, for a lot of people, is a very real and sometimes necessary outlet. No doubt that a countless number of bands and artists announce that music 'saved their lives', with The Used, it seems to hold an awful lot of truth.
The songs that had once washed over me in a wave of 'meh, they are alright!' suddenly took on a whole new meaning. After the gig, The first Used album didn't leave my stereo for the best part of a year and still remains in my top ten debut albums of all time. They also opened me up to a lot more music (and helped me find some of my now-favourite albums) that I wouldn't have previously discovered.
The same year as the Birmingham gig, the band realised a live album which to this day I cant listen to without getting shivers up my spine.
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