Generation of chaos: part 2

I flashed the security guard my photo pass and he opened the gate which led me to the barricade between the stage and the fenced off crowd of screaming fans. Everyone was waiting for The Used to begin, chanting lyrics collectively and applauding when everyone could sing a full song together. The photographers were allowed front stage access for the first three songs. With cameras in hand, we waited for the performance to begin.

The opening bands Drive A and Atreyu were reminiscent of the 80s hardcore scene and the screamo movement of music that reached an all time popularity level on the Internet in the early 2000s.

At first glance, Drive A struck me as a group of amateurs on stage and I wondered why such a seemingly weak band would be granted the opportunity to tour with contemporary rock legends like Atreyu and The Used. Their set consisted of two identical banners with their band name, sporting the anarchist emblem, which seemed slightly premature for such a young band.

At the beginning of their set, the audience donated a zero level of interest and participation despite requests for clapping and mosh pits. Finally, singer and guitarist Bruno Mascolo stepped outside of his comfort zone and leapt across the barrier between the stage and the crowd to directly interact with the audience. Following the example of the early Adam Lazzara from Taking Back Sunday, Mascolo dove right into the center of the audience to start a mosh pit with his lyrics, "Go ahead label me, it doesn't mean anything. I agree to disagree I'm compelled to let you be." To rile up the stagnant audience members, he started shoving until they were willing to shove back.

Mascolo was quick to escape to the stage as soon as the crowd began to savagely throw each other around. Watching a mosh pit from a birds eye view in the balcony of Lifestyles Community Pavilion was like watching a group of ants attacking each other over a morsel of bread. Mascolo's improvisation was not only redemptive but a testament to the ability punk rock has to stimulate a frozen league of people.

Atreyu took the stage after Drive A with an onslaught of heavy percussion breakdowns and a medley of dual guitar solos. Atreyu plays hardcore rock n' roll like it should be played; every member takes to their instrument as an extension of their body and plays with everything they've got. Atreyu's drummer, Brandon Saller, is one of the rare drummers who can rock a 10-piece drum set and simultaneously provide vocals. The guitarists alternated between guitar tapping, playing in harmony and moving in synchronization for a better stage appeal. All the while, singer Alex Varkatzas tore his vocal chords to shreds as the members of the audience went surfing to the beloved and final song of their set, "Lip Gloss and Black."

The lights go down and The Used's guitarist Quinn Allman, bassist Jeph Howard and drummer Dan Whitesides gear up their equipment in front of Nintendo-themed stage decor. Everyone is waiting for their favorite nocturnal frontman, Bert McCracken, to step out from the darkness of backstage and begin his eccentric performance.

The atmosphere between the crowd and the stage is like a paradox; I am neither a member of the band nor a member of the audience, entirely; although I am lucky enough to see things more closely than the average music lover. Suddenly I see a small, glowing orange dot fly out from the shadows. The stage is so dark, I don't think anyone else sees McCracken flick his cigarette onto the stage. He takes his time behind the curtain, laughing about the lonely cigarette butt with the sound engineer. Finally, he runs to put out the cigarette and returns to the shadows, apparently getting off on making the crowd wait for his presence.

When he's ready, McCracken leaps out from the darkness and the lights flash on stage, followed by an uproarious cry from the audience. The photographers start clicking like mad and already, over-excited fans are flying toward the stage by way of crowd hands.

They open their performance with "Blood on My Hands," the single from the 2009 album, "Artwork." Although the notion of murder and blood are a repetitious theme in nearly all of The Used's songs, McCracken brings the violence to life with his stage prowess. He is of medium height, slightly bearded, greasy hair and it appears that he has not showered in days. His dirty post-Nirvana image has become the lithograph for modern punk rock - not to say that The Used is a reincarnation of 90s Grunge, but certainly a positive spawning of the residue left by Kurt Cobain.

On recordings, The Used is a tasteful mess of angst ridden poetry on top of angry guitar riffs and melodic, yet stifled bass lines. On stage, however, The Used is just as rambunctious as their chaotic albums promise. Compared to the rest of the leading men from the Taste of Chaos generation, McCracken is one of the only ones equally as powerful on an album as well as on stage.

The band plays through a set consisting of songs from all their albums, like "Buried Myself Alive," "The Taste of Ink" and "Take It Away."

"Let's hear it for Drive A!" McCracken yells, followed by applause and cheers.

"And let's hear it for my favorite band and yours," he continues, "The Used!"

Narcissism has always been a strong point for McCracken, but it's a pragmatic part of the band's "devil may care" attitude.

McCracken toys with the audience, provoking mosh pits and the feared "wall of death."

"I want to see a 15 foot gap between this side of the crowd, and this side of the crowd," he says. The band begins the intro to their song, "Pretty Handsome Awkward."

"When we explode, I want to see all of you run face first into each other at full speed," he says, followed by the heavy guitar lead in and percussion break down.

Half of the audience runs face first into one another and the other half runs from any potential injury. As McCracken gets his kicks, the audience is busy trying to survive flying elbows from the pits and stray legs from surfers.