Album Review

The Used – Live And Acoustic At The PalaceThe Used – Live And Acoustic At The Palace

The Used are currently celebrating their fifteenth anniversary as a band and in those fifteen years the band have released six studio albums, two eps and toured the world over so many times and now to celebrate their fifteenth anniversary they have been touring across America and the UK where they have been playing two shows in each city where they have been playing their self-titled album and ‘In Love and Death’ in their entirety plus a few other classic songs, however the people of Los Angeles got treated to a once in a lifetime special show as The Used headed down to The Palace Theater where they played a stripped down acoustic set with a 4-piece string quartet and harpist, a piano player, percussion and a 3-piece gospel choir and luckily for the millions of fans who could not attend the show The Used recorded the whole show and are set to released ‘Live And Acoustic At The Palace’ on a special CD/DVD combination package of the 1st April.

‘Live And Acoustic At The Palace’ is a must have release for all fans of The Used as it features 12 tracks and a lot of the songs featured are songs that The Used haven’t played live in a long time so it’s quite special to hear them live again but even more so to see the songs recreated for this special night and special release and unlike most live albums everything has been kept live here from the music to the in-between song stories from Bert McCracken all the way to the screams, claps and infectious sing-a-long moments from the crowd.

For myself and I’m sure many others ‘The Taste Of Ink’ was the first song I ever heard from The Used and from the moment I heard it I was hooked on the band so it’s good to see that the song is included and sounds fantastic in acoustic format with the whole crowd out-singing Bert McCracken some times out of tune yet so passinate that it raises the hairs on your spine.

The standout tracks are ‘Paralyzed’ which features a gospel choir and oozes in groove and style as The Used totally rework one of their classic songs to epic proportions whilst maintaining the original speed and groove of the song. Other standout tracks on the album are ‘Lunacy Fringe’ for its catchiness, the beautiful ‘Overdose’ which is written about Bert’s daughter Cleopatra Rose and the outstanding emotional cover of John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ which had the whole venue screaming and clapping to at the end.

Overall ‘Live And Acoustic At The Palace’ is a well thought out release and the show it’s self you can instantly tell that 110% has been put into it and it’s been made even more special with Bert telling the story behind each and every track and at times you can hear and feel the emotions in his voice as he nearly chokes up  in places.

If you are a hardcore The Used fan then you really need ‘Live And Acoustic at The Palace’ in your life  so make sure you pre order it right away, and here is to another  epic 15 year journey with The Used.

5/5

Review by Trigger

 Band Members

Bert McCracken
Jeph Howard
Dan Whitesides
Justin Shekoski
 Track Listing
1. Tunnel
2. The Taste of Ink
3. Yesterday's Feelings
4. Lunacy Fringe
5. The Bird And The Worm
6. Paralyzed
7. All That I've Got
8. Overdose
9. Blue And Yellow
10. Hard To Say
11. Imagine (John Lennon Cover)
12. On My Own
 Band Related Links
The Used Facebook
 Review Score Code
- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
- What Was That?