Photos + Review: The Used & Story of the Year @ Uptown Theater (Minneapolis, MN)

The Used (Orem, UT), Story of the Year (St. Louis, MO)
June 26, 2024
Uptown Theater in Minneapolis, MN

Finally, another white whale of a band for me to see can be crossed off. 

The Used have been a band I’ve known and listened to for decades at this point. I remember them getting big back when I was in high school, and back when I started photographing concerts back in 2016, The Used were a band that I’ve wanted to shoot. For whatever reason though, whenever the band would come up to this area, I wouldn’t be able to shoot. I’d have gone out of town for a trip to Chicago, got sick, or just that there was another show scheduled that night of a band I absolutely couldn’t miss. It just never lined up for me until last week when The Used played Uptown Theater.

I’m still getting used to this new to the cities venue, but a band like the Used playing a venue like the Uptown was a good time. I love the layout of the place, how it felt packed but not too overly packed, and even from the back of the main floor, it all still felt very intimate.

The Used put on a great all around performance, on a stage that harkened back to old WWF steel cage days. Frontman Bert McCraken at times was a little shaky on vocals when trying to high the high notes, but when him doing this for 20+ years it was easily looked past, and also added a good sense of authenticity to the performance. It was a well rounded setlist, playing a handful of songs from each of their two breakthrough albums “In Love and Death” and their self titled. I would have loved to see more from Heartwork played, but with this being a first for me seeing any of these songs live, I was mostly just happy to be there.

Story of the Year was the main support and was just as good, if not even a little better. I got to see them last year for the first time when they played The Armory, opening up for Yellowcard. I remember being super impressed back then, and was impressed yet again this second time. There was even a little surprise finding out that guitarist Jason Milbank from Senses Fail was filling in on bass this night. I’ve enjoyed watching Senses Fail a lot the times I’ve see them, so a little crossover was a nice treat. You could easily tell how much fun Story of the Year were having on stage, and it translated over to the crowd.

It’s always good to be able to cross a band off a personal must-watch list. Certainly took a long time for me to get to The Used, but I’m glad that it happened when it did and will be looking forward to next time.