Taking Back Sunday & The Used 2014 Co-Headline Tour – REVIEW + GALLERY

We recently had the great pleasure of covering the Chicago date of Taking Back Sunday and The Used’s co-headline tour together with support from Tonight Alive and Sleepwave. You can check out our review and gallery from the show, after the break.

Recently, I had the pleasure of attending the Taking Back Sunday and The Used co-headliner tour with Tonight Alive and Sleepwave at Concord Music Hall. I love that this tour came to a venue such as this. If it was at a bigger venue, the impact would not of been the same.

With Sleepwave performing first, if you were tired at all from your day, they definitely woke you up. Former singer of Underoath, Spencer Chamberlain, is now the front man of Sleepwave. I for one am glad he’s still doing music and even though I was never able to see Underoath live, I am happy that I got to see Sleepwave. When they come back again, you can count on me being there. With a record coming out in August, if you missed them this time around, they will be going on tour again once that it is released.

Tonight Alive was up next and their stage presence is something to see. Jenna came on stage wearing a Chicago Bulls jersey which I bet was appreciated by the crowd to see her representing their home team. Playing both old and new songs, they made sure they did not waste any of their set time. Songs such as “Are You Listening?”, “The Edge”, “The Ocean”, “Bathwater”, “Hell and Back”, and others made the set complete. They got the crowd hyped up for what was to come from the rest of the night.

As soon as Taking Back Sunday took the stage, the crowd went wild. This was my first time being able to see them in an actual venue besides festivals such as Riotfest or Warped tour and let me tell you, they were amazing. The intimateness of the venue added to the experience and although I expected there to be way more crowd surfers, I also realized that many of the people there were probably my age or older and crowd surfing wasn’t there idea of a good time. That however did not stop the crowd from singing every word and opening a mosh pit. Taking us back in time with ones such as “Number Five with a Bullet”, “You’re So Last Summer”, “Cute Without the E”, “A Decade Under the Influence”, “MakeDamnSure”, “What’s It Feel Like to be a Ghost?”, “Liar (Takes one to know one)”, “Faith When I Let You Down”, “You Know How I Do”, and then of course giving our ears the new songs from their just released record, Happiness Is…, “Flicker, Fade”, “Beat Up Car”, “Better Home and Gardens”, and “Stood a Chance”. Taking Back Sunday puts on a great show and you should go check them out if you have not already.

“I was thinking of rooms like this of people who actually give a shit”, was one of the lines spoken by The Used’s front man, Bert to the crowd during their performance about the tour. If you didn’t know they just put out a new record, Imaginary Enemy, which is worth listening to. During their songs, he also called for circle pits and a wall of death which of course, the crowd obliged to. I was excited that they played many of their older songs such as “The Bird and the Worm”, “I Caught Fire”, “Pretty Handsome Awkward”, “On My Own”, “All that I’ve Got”, “The Taste of Ink”, along with newer ones. I think the best way to describe the part of a show where the band steps off stage and the crowd chants ‘one more song’ until they come back for an encore or two, is best said by Bert when they came back out and he said it was “Organized Humanitarian Anarchy”. One of the bits they did before they closed out the night was a version of Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name Of”, which the crowd took full part in. It was a great way to end the night.

If you have the chance to go to this tour don’t miss out. You don’t even have to go with anyone to enjoy it, just have your memories of growing up listening to these bands and you’re all set. Lose yourself in the music and just enjoy it.

Information about this review/gallery:
Tour: Taking Back Sunday & The Used 2014 Co-Headline Tour
Bands: Taking Back Sunday, The Used, Tonight Alive, Sleepwave
Reviewer/Photographer: Ali Jimenez
Date: April 5, 2014
Venue: Concord Music Hall in Chicago, IL