The Used Returned to Denver For Fresh "Toxic Positivity"

The Used returned to Denver, Colorado in lou of the tour for their new album, "Toxic Positivity". The band welcomed Dead American as their opener during each location of their run. The tour consisted of 25 stops in 20 states, only 1 stop did not include supporting band, Sleeping With Sirens.

On Wednesday, October 4th around 4pm local fans of The Used started forming outside of Denver's popular venue, Mission Ballroom. Those that had meet and greet tickets were welcomed in first at 5:30pm before doors officially opened at 7pm. By the time general admission was admitted, there was a line wrapped from the front to the side of the building going back and forth in a snake-like fashion. Security welcomed guests through, wishing them a good night while staff scanned each attendees ticket and the venue slowly filled throughout the night, leading up to The Used taking stage.

After Dead American and Sleeping With Sirens opened the night, guests were forced to wait with anticipation as a large white sheet with "The Used" scribbled across it hung from the stage and crew worked quickly behind it to set the stage for the final set. As I waited to take my place in the photo pit, I patiently waited and watched the crew run back and forth, grabbing and placing each floral pieced set together. The stage slowly blossomed with pink and white flowers before the set up was complete and the overhead lights dimmed. It seemed as though the venue went quiet before one bright white light turned on, welcoming the band to the stage as the white sheet that hung, hiding the stage dropped to reveal two three platforms with roses covering the fronts of them and a backdrop with a skeleton vomiting the same flowers which surround it and "The Used" scribbled directly above it.

The crowd screamed with excitement as they opened up with "Pretty Handsome Awkward". Soon after the start of the set, the band was booed and many shouted "fuck you" from the crowd to the band. If you've seen The Used before, you kn0w this is nothing out of the ordinary as Bert (the lead singer) encourages and basically begs his fans to do. They continued onto the next song, requesting that at the end of it they get booed. It seemed like most of the crowd forgot about that request as they finished and cheers quickly and awkwardly turned into booing, which made for a laugh.

Throughout the set a handful of interesting events occured, one of them being a proposal. A child sat atop his mom's shoulders holding up a sign that said "BERT HELP US PROPOSE TO OUR MOM". Bert saw the sign, making a joke about the child proposing to their mom before bringing them and their parents up on stage. One of the parents got down on their knees, leaving the other left standing. They took the microphone and asked, "will you let me be the one to call you baby all the time?", in which they responded yes. The crowd cheered and the members of the band clapped and congratulated them as the family exited the stage, flooded with excitement and the incredible feeling that they just proposed on the stage of The Used thanks to the help of Bert McCracken - a moment they'd remember forever.

The Used closed out their set by performing The Taste of Ink before thanking the attendees of Mission Ballroom and exiting the stage. The crowd cheered (not even chanting for an encore) wildly until the members came back out about two minutes later, asking their fans if they were waiting for an encore. The volume of their fans increased as Bert's next words were "Small, simple, safe price", leading into the chorus to popular song, "I'm a Fake". A small amount of fans parted out before the encore, those that remained shouted the lyrics along as they finished and moved into "A Box of Sharp Objects". Before saying goodnight once again The Used ended with "Smells Like Teen Spirit", their Nirvana cover.

The night came to an end as the overhead lights illuminated the venue and guests slowly exited the building to either return home or carry on with the rest of their plans for the remainder of their day, leaving fans buzzing about the set they had just seen.