Day II The Used in Cologne with The New Regime
Day II The Used in Cologne
with The New Regime
Location: Bürgerhaus Stollwerck, Cologne
Date: 03/01/2016
On night two of THE USED‘s stay in Cologne, the band revisits its second record “In Love and Death“. This is the evening I was looking forward to, because I still really like that record. It was always my favorite from THE USED. Most of the crowd seems to have bought a ticket for both evenings. Even though the venue is slightly less crowded that yesterday.
THE NEW REGIME is the supporting act for this show as well. It seems like the band even plays the same setlist as yesterday. So let‘s go outside and take a look around. The merch table is stuffed with a lot of shirts that resemble the first to records. The band also brought their three latest releases on vinyl. It‘s 15 euro each, which is a real good deal. Meanwhile THE NEW REGIME plays yesterday‘s set to yesterday‘s crowd with yesterday‘s reactions.
Then it‘s finally time for THE USED. Of course the band plays its second output in its entirety, which means the first four songs will be tonight‘s highlights. Starting with the ecstatic opener ‘Take It Away‘, that caused the biggest moshpit of the band‘s two night stay. The following ‘I Caught Fire (In Your Eyes)‘ sounds perfect. Singer Bert McCracken catches the high notes quite perfectly, while the energetic ‘Let It Bleed‘ demands more action from the singer. Then it goes all college-rock with the nice power-ballad ‘All That I‘ve Got‘. Those four songs still are among the very best tracks the band has ever written.
Today McCracken‘s speeches in-between the songs are far shorter than yesterday, which is nice, because the show gets more of a live feeling and differs from yesterday‘s song-speech-song-rhythm. The track ‘Listening‘ is even dedicated to the writer of these lines, even though no Spanish was spoken during the entire interview! Still this is my personal favorite from THE USED‘s back catalogue.
‘I‘m A Fake‘ ends the set. The crowd recites the spoken word intro in a nearly religious manner. The song itself is also welcomed with open arms. Then the band leaves the stage, but they return for an encore. This time it is no hidden track (for there is none) or a b-side of one of the “In Love and Death“ singles. It is ‘Pretty Handsome Awkward‘, taken from the group‘s follow-up “Lies For The Liars“.
Both evenings were very good, especially the second. But it would have been great, if there was less talk and more songs. The encore could have consisted of a few more tracks from the other releases by the group – for they don‘t come that often to Europe.
Text Sebastian Berning
Day One Version
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