The Used at Koko – bourbon, burgers and Bert McCracken

There are a few bands that you inevitably buy tickets for, no matter how busy your schedule is or what other events might be causing you to hemorrhage cash that month, and for me The Used is one of them. If Bert McCracken's in town, you can bet your bottom dollar I'm going to be there too.

Last Thursday The Used played Koko and having seen them plenty of times before, I'll admit the first question on all of our minds was, where should we have our pre-gig dinner? Typically if I'm in Camden I'm drawn to Hache, like a ravenous moth to a delicious flame. It's a gourmet burger place a stone's throw from the tube station (gourmet in the good sense, not the pretentious kind of place that thinks that four chips constitutes a portion). The food is incredible for carnivores and herbivores alike and if it's been a few months I start to get cravings.

Recently, however, we've been trying to branch out, so my BBQ loving BFF suggested we try The Blues Kitchen, which turned out to be a pretty good call. It has the distinctly Southern American vibe that the name suggests, live music later in the evening, and over 100 types of bourbon.

The Blues Kitchen – bourbon anyone?!

The food was good and the drinks selection even better, although I did reel in horror while weighing up the bourbon choice, when our waitress said, "don't worry, by the time you've got a mixer in it you won't taste the difference anyway!" Really? Really?! Anyway the bourbon was great, my creole bean burger was delicious and we were soon on our way to Koko.

Last time I saw The Used at Scala I think the two points I made very clearly were a) how much I love this band and b) how fantastic and engaging Bert is (you can read about that night here), and this show was much the same. The more you see a band the harder it is to write about them, especially if they consistently put on a good show, and you find yourself tempted to write a three word review: It Was Awesome. But there's always a twist to the tale and, just when I think The Used can't make me love them anymore, they incorporated New Noise into Maybe Memories to kick things off. And we all know how much I love me some Refused.

The fourteen-song set then consisted of almost exactly what you would expect: Take It Away, The Bird and the Worm, I Caught Fire, Listening, The Taste of Ink, All That I've Got, Cry, Revolution, The Best Of Me, Blood On My Hands and Pretty Handsome Awkward. Fairly short and sweet but pretty darn perfect and a nice showcase of over a decade of hard work.

As I've said before, I'm a fan of The Used's sound from the early days of their self-titled album right up to last year's release, Imaginary Enemy. I think it's the sign of a great band when the setlist can span the years seamlessly and, despite a variety of ages in the crowd, each song gets an (almost) identical reaction. The only glaring omission appears to be 2012's Vulnerable, which for some reason is notably absent from recent shows. I'd like to see the raw energy of Hands and Faces live but I have a sneaking suspicion it won't happen any time soon.

The night concluded with an acoustic performance of On My Own performed from the balcony then back onto the stage for A Box Full Of Sharp Objects with a bit of Nirvana and Rage Against The Machine thrown into the intro and outro for good measure. What can I say? A night that starts with bourbon and ends with Bert McCracken was always going to be a good one.

theused.net
@WeAreTheUsed

Taking Back Sunday at Koko, Camden

Taking Back Sunday, Koko, 26 February

It’s taken me far longer than it should have to get around to writing this, because it didn't seem particularly exciting to simply write ‘Taking Back Sunday were freakin fantastic’. But in truth that’s all that needs to be said – Taking Back Sunday are fantastic.

If you love music, then you probably love a whole bunch of bands, choosing a soundtrack to suit every mood and making playlists for everything from road trips to pounding the pavements. But some bands steal a particularly large chunk of your heart when you least expect it and hold onto it forever.

© Sarah Louise Bennett

I think one of the reasons I love Taking Back Sunday so much is that they are an integral part of the soundtrack to a very memorable time in my life, a time that brought some unwelcome challenges followed by a move to another city for university. I think a lot of the things you enjoy at that particular time in your life define what you will like in the future, and music is no different.

At school I’d loved bands from the 90s with a fierce and unrivalled passion, but due to my age I was often late to the game, discovering them on the second or third album. I love the Stones and Fleetwood Mac too, but they really belong to my parents. I listen to a whole host of new bands, but these aren’t truly mine either – they belong to a new generation of skinny jean clad boys and girls who are no doubt as vocal about them as I was about the Foo Fighters all those years ago.

But there was a magical moment at the turn of the millennium when the tide turned and a new wave of bands had emerged, and suddenly something clicked. This sound was new and slightly different. It just felt right. This was a time just before the label ‘emo’ was being thrown around and before Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance dumbed the scene down a bit and fed it to the masses. The look fitted my generation too; boys who bought clothes in the right size not three sizes too small, and who only needed a handful of tattoos or the occasional piercing to set themselves apart.

This new generation included bands like Brand New, The Used, Bayside, Silverstein, Senses Fail and Rival Schools, and although I’d loved bands before and have done since, that certain musical moment suspended in time on CD (I was yet to own an iPod) spoke to me in a way that nothing else had. This was a time before Facebook, and in some cases even My Space, when bands really had to work hard and do it the old fashioned way to make their mark and sell records.

© Sarah Louise Bennett

The problem with the deep love I have for Taking Back Sunday, is that every time I go and see them, I'm still as excited as a child at a birthday party who’s had too much cake and cola, and subsequently spiralled into a debilitating sugar coma. Except instead of cake it’s Jack Daniels, and instead of cola it’s Jack Daniels, and instead of a sugar coma it's a level of inebriation that means not once have I truly remembered an encore.

So last month I headed to Koko with a game plan – to quit while I was ahead and stick to a three drink limit. After all, the band have grown up and matured so shouldn’t I be reflecting that in my appreciation?! With this in mind I stood on the balcony looking down on the action and spent a relaxed evening singing my heart out (my sincerest apologies to those around me.)

© Sarah Louise Bennett

The new album Happiness Is was still a couple of weeks away from being released so apart from a few new songs including the magnificent Flicker Fade, the setlist was a nice selection from the band’s back catalogue. Some people are pretty opinionated about which TBS era is best – the early years, post John Nolan and Shaun Cooper, the reunion – but personally I love it all. I particularly enjoyed the substantial portion of Louder Now including My Blue Heaven and Error Operator, which, if memory serves me correctly, have been missing from the last few shows I’ve been to.

Adam Lazzara is always an entertaining front man and the band seem to be genuinely enjoying playing together since reuniting the original line-up in 2010, which has resulted in an unbeatable chemistry and energy. The night ended on a high with a crowd-pleasing rendition of Cute Without The 'E' (Cut From The Team) followed by a three-song encore that concluded the only way it could, with Make Damn Sure.

© Sarah Louise Bennett

From my elevated view point I looked down happily and with a certain amount of nostalgia, thinking how great it is that after so many years TBS are still producing music that excites me and makes me smile. I might be older and ever so slightly wiser, but that piece of my heart that they stole all those years ago still very much belongs to them. And I hope it always will.

Happiness Is is available now on iTunes, CD and some rather sexy vinyl

www.takingbacksunday.com

@TBSOfficial

Huge thank you to Sarah Louise Bennett for the fantastic photos – www.sarahlouisebennett.co.uk

Bush at Koko, Camden

Oh Gavin Rossdale, the only man in the world worthy of Gwen Stefani….

I saw 90s heroes Bush play at Scala at the end of last year and it was possibly the most excited I’d been about a gig in a while. After a seven year break, the new album Sea Of Memories was the proof I needed that they were back on form and finally they were touring – and oh what a night that was! I said at the time, that if they played Glycerine I‘d have got my money’s worth. Well they did, and I did.

So when the opportunity came up to see them again there was absolutely no hesitation at all, and last Thursday we found ourselves at Koko in Camden. I like Koko, it’s a nice sized venue and even when you are near the back you get a pretty good view – as an added bonus you are also near to the bar, not that I was drinking on this particular occasion. (Yep, even I have the odd night off!)

So the first question I got asked last year by a very good friend (with enough years on me to have seen them on the back of Sixteen Stone), was did they play the classic songs from their first few albums. Unsurprisingly this is exactly what I'm getting asked again. I’m not even going to try and pick out any highlights, because the setlist speaks for itself, so I have pinched it off the ever handy setlist.fm for you:

See what I mean?! One of those nights you just don’t want to end. From the opening chords of Machinehead to the epic conclusion of Comedown it was pure joy.

If I have one tiny little complaint about Bush, it’s their name. As you can probably tell I love these guys – they are one of those bands that make you want to wear their t-shirt and proudly proclaim your love to the whole world. And I get it, they named themselves after their former home, Shepherd’s Bush. But would you really want to walk around wearing a t-shirt with the word BUSH emblazoned across the front?! Me neither.