Article and Photos by: Richard Knowles

Being a concert photographer, I’m always a bit taken back by just how lucky I am to be able to capture moments of artists I admire on a nightly basis. That being said, this past Friday, The Used came into Boston and delivered one of my favorite performances thus far of 2016. The band is currently going city to city playing a 15th anniversary tour which consists of setlists taken directly from two of their biggest albums to date, The Used Self Titled and In Love And Death.  I was fortunate enough to be there on night one of two as they played their self titled album to a sold out crowd that sang along and hung on every word that frontman Bert Mccracken belted out.

The Used’s self titled album for me, was an escape.  It was a place where I could bury the day and zone out while I listened to song after song.  In the album I found solace that I wasn’t the only person dealing with, what i thought were just my problems.  That’s what music is supposed to do for you, it’s supposed to grip your soul and relate to it’s audience.  No band I have come across has ever come close to making me feel more at peace than The Used. Walking into the photo pit I had this overwhelming sense of gratitude and appreciation as i often do when I’m about to shoot a favorite artist of mine, but i don’t know that it has ever resonated so deeply than it did on Friday night. The crowd was super eager for the band to get things started and with one dim of the lights my teenage self was reborn.

As the band took the stage and the warmth of the lights hit my face I felt home. Starting the show off with “Maybe Memories” and transitioning into one of their biggest hits “Taste Of Ink” a once anxious crowd became alive and ready to let go of anything that might’ve been on their mind when they entered the venue and embark on a night full of teenage angst revisited and sing along with a band that makes you feel right at home even with 2,ooo people around you.

Throughout the show the hits kept pouring out as they played “Buried Myself Alive” “On My Own” and a personal favorite of mine and one that put the already energized crowd into an absolute frenzy “ A Box Full Of Sharp Objects” Every time The Used comes around whether I’m shooting or just attending as a patron they always bring their A-game and Friday night proved that even after 15 years and with many more albums under their belts that their roots are still firmly imprinted in the hearts and minds of those of us who have been with them from the start.