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[07 Jun 2005|09:46pm] |
These punks are feeling lucky, writes Patrick Donovan.
"Used, Used, Used" chant the core of the 5000 fans at Sydney's Horden Pavilion as they await US punk rock band, the Used, to hit the stage.
The May 12 show - their only one in Australia - sold out in less than an hour and the air is thick with anticipation and teen spirit. The most eager members of the crowd - many emulating the band in black Used T-shirts and skater shorts - have had to withstand a sudden downpour of rain as they waited for the gates to open.
Some fans travelled from interstate and others slept out overnight to ensure they secured the prime spot in the moshpit. Even before the show starts, a steady stream of crowd surfers are assisted over the front barrier by bouncers. They receive high fives from the crowd for their efforts as they are ushered out.
The band members, having dined on broccoli, fennel and almond soup, beef medallions, poached swordfish and profiteroles backstage, hit the stage 10 minutes late to an almighty roar.
Their well-credentialled manager John Reese, one-time bodyguard for Axl Rose, brings out clean white towels to mop up their hard work and rocks along. Michael Gudinski, who will bring the band back in October to headline the Australian leg of the Taste of Chaos tour, slaps his hands together.
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AdvertisementIt's the touring company's job to predict the Next Big Thing for the kids and they're clearly on a winner here.
Welcome to mainstream punk's hottest new show. The Used are at the forefront of an underground movement of "screamo" bands (a new genre of emotional punk rock with screamed vocals) that has caught the majority of the music industry off guard.
Initially ignored by mainstream radio, it has been driven by the internet and word of mouth by the young fans who have invested in them - financially and emotionally. And importantly, they have a good band name, following a strong tradition of punk acts with monikers of universal aggrievement such as the Exploited. When chanted en masse, it has the strange effect of sounding like they are celebrating being downtrodden.
On stage, it's loud, tight, emotional high-energy entertainment. The band's frontman, Bert McCracken, is well versed in mainstream punk 101. This is the guy, after all, who dated and dumped Kelly Osbourne - a good marketing move in anyone's books. And despite staying up drinking until 4am and being horribly jetlagged, they fulfilled all of their press requirements earlier in the day.
On stage, McCracken transforms from a scruffy shy kid to punk's new pin-up boy. Like a male Avril Lavigne, he wears black shorts and shirt, black mascara, fingerless gloves and shoulder-length greasy black hair. Charming and friendly, he has shaved off his scraggly beard for the show and looks eight years younger.
With the exception of a few brutal metal moments, the music is mostly bouncy, crunchy teen pop, with power chords and body tattoos helping it masquerade as punk. McCracken has a great voice - he can offer a demonic howl or an emo wail that can fill stadiums - but mostly he sings in a squeaky speaking voice.
He is also a master stageman, engaging in friendly on-stage banter, inclusive call-and-response tactics and the band genuinely appear to be having a good time.
"Put your arm around the buddy next to you," McCracken urges the crowd. "And if you don't have any friends, I'll be your best friend in the whole world."
"Dreams can come true if you don't give up," he gushes, before calling for lighters and mobile phones to be raised during On My Own. It is probably the band's best track, breaking from the pop punk template to allow Bert to show off his impressive operatic vocals.
With the exception of one line that thrilled the girls but may have confused the blokes - "After this show I'm going to have sex with every one of you" (a line also used by Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong on stage earlier this year), and a radical stage dive that shouldn't be tried at home off the kitchen table, there was nothing subversive that should be of any concern to parents.
In fact, some of McCracken's messages could have come from his childhood days in the Mormon church.
Much of it could be considered either inspiring or cliched and corny but the crowd don't care if it has been said before; they tap right in to his angsty melodrama as he exorcises his demons on stage.
They're completely mad," says 19-year-old audience member Dimity after the show. "There's no gimmicks. With these guys, everything they do and say is real."
'"I think the fact that we write honest music is part of our appeal," concurs McCracken.
And this goes to the essence of the band's mass appeal. Their young fans believe in them. They feel McCracken's pain and he theirs. The band may look like outcasts in their 5-star Sydney hotel but theirs is an inclusive club.
Anyone who feels that they have been "used" by society - which includes anyone still living at home and with access to $150 for their concert ticket, album, cap and T-shirt - is invited.
"We couldn't see it coming. They are the big new story in rock'n'roll," said Ed St John, the head of the band's Australian label, Warner, the night before at the Taste of Chaos launch at Sydney's Rocks.
The Used will headline the national stadium tour with support from "screamo" bands Killswitch Engage, Story of the Year, Funeral for a Friend and Rise Against (general admission tickets to the October 26 show at Rod Laver Arena would sell out within 30 minutes of going on sale).
Frontier Touring's Michael Gudinski made an impassioned speech about the band's grassroots level of support.
"It's all about the fans. People who want to see the music getting back to see the music. It's the fans that count."
According to bassist Jeph Howard, "We are those kids. Those kids that come to our shows - that's us. We're not trying to pretend that we are rock guys - we're the same people that come to our shows."
"We're not better than them," adds McCracken. "We're just lucky enough to be gifted and be able to make music that represents how we feel. That's such a release."
Growing up in the Mormon community in Orem, Utah, McCracken found that he never really fitted in and was kicked out of home. He reportedly became a heroin addict while living on the streets and his ex-girlfriend died of a drug overdose while she was pregnant with his baby.
"We're from the even more religious area - Utah Valley - and remember as I grew up, parents would move their kids aside when I would walk by," Howard says.
But they've since returned to Orem.
"It's way beautiful," McCracken says. "Mountains, eight rivers within five minutes of my house, six ski resorts, a lake, everything you might want to do with outdoor water sports, and a desert to shoot guns and ride bikes. There's not a lot of support for rock'n'roll but it's getting better."
While McCracken pours his heart out in his lyrics and is happy to talk up his home town, he doesn't reveal much else.
What do you know about Australia and its music scene?
"All I've heard is that the women are beautiful and everyone is mad friendly, as so far it's true - even the people in customs."
(McCracken made good on this first statement. He recently returned to the US with a new girlfriend in tow - a Sydney Warner sales representative, who quit her job on the spot to take up his offer to join him in the US).
Considering the current political climate, have they noticed a paranoid energy in the US at the shows?
"There are two types of kids at our shows - the ones who care about politics and come to our shows to forget about it, and the kids who don't care about politics at all," Howard says.
"I don't think kids are concerned with the whole thing as maybe they should be," McCracken says. "I definitely know that I am not. We're just rockin' out and we're constantly getting better."
Back at the Horden, the Used are working the crowd into a frenzy.
"We're gonna start the biggest moshpit the Horden Pavilion has ever seen, the biggest moshpit Sydney's ever seen," says McCracken before launching into their frenetic punk song, Box Full of Sharp Objects: "Do you want a song of glory? Well I'm f---ing screaming at you," sings McCracken.
"It's our time to shine through the down/Glorified by what is ours. We've fallen in love, We've fallen in love."
Oh, I do love them so.
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