Papa Roach + The Used @ Place Bell▪

I’m not entirely sure if a 60:40 split can be considered a co-headline show, but a 1-hour support slot is definitely more than your average. Whatever you want to call it, I’m thrilled to see The Used again after so many years; I think Warped Tour 2012 was the last time! After a blazing entrance of strobes and smoke, frontman Bert McCracken opens the set with the declaration, “If you don’t mind, we’re gonna play some old sh*t!” True to his word, it really is a “Greatest Hits” set, with “Blood on My Hands” (from 2012’s Artwork record) the youngest of the 12 songs played! “Take It Away” remains every bit as incendiary as you remember, while “The Bird and the Worm” is pure metal theatre. Bassist Jeph Howard lays down the screams on “Sound Effects and Overdramatics” and mammoth set closer “A Box Full of Sharp Objects” to take the intensity up another notch.

Bert is still a total showman when it comes to working the crowd, too; he proclaims, “I wanna see the biggest circle pit Montreal has ever seen, you gotta beat Toronto!” A Montreal crowd needs no more motivation than that, and delivers accordingly. Bert is impressed: “Now that was a circle pit!” He incites a sea of waving arms on “Buried Myself Alive,” as well as pointing his mic into the crowd on songs like the chilling “I Caught Fire” and “The Taste of Ink” to let them sing the occasional line. It sounds amazing; it truly feels like they are the headliner at times like these, such is the fervour and the volume of the singalong that comes back. An absolute monster of an hour, and a tough act for tonight’s headliner (or other co-headliner?) to follow.

The Used Setlist

Pretty Handsome Awkward
Take It Away
The Bird and the Worm
I Caught Fire
All That I’ve Got
Buried Myself Alive
Sound Effects and Overdramatics
Say Days Ago
Listening
Blood on My Hands
The Taste of Ink
A Box Full of Sharp Objects

After passing out in my seat (4 hours sleep and a busy work day catches up on you eventually…), I wake up to the sound of screaming as the lights drop, and the mighty Papa Roach appear on stage, according to frontman Jacoby Shaddix, “Celebrating 25 years in this mother**ker!” The set starts with an array of flames and smoke stacks on “Even If It Kills Me,” before a couple of throwbacks from the breakthrough Infest record arrive in the form of a storming “Blood Brothers” and “Dead Cell,” igniting a huge mosh pit as Jacoby spits rhymes effortlessly and agelessly; it’s like the last 25 years never happened!

A huge circle pit almost annihilates the brave beer guy trying to sell his wares on the floor section during “…To Be Loved,” Jacoby even climbing down to the floor to get in on the action, before he returns to set up a wall of death for the opening bars of “Kill the Noise.” Things are getting crazy pretty early in the set, but still, Jacoby soon asks, “Are you ready to take this show to another level?!” Hang on, there are more levels to this?!?!

“Liar” keeps up the relentless pace in another flurry of strobes and flames, Jacoby ushering all on the floor to crouch down, and those in the seats to sit down, before all jump to their feet together for the song’s conclusion. Yes, you’ve seen it before, but at an arena?? That looks pretty special.

The frenetic pace finally drops a little on “Forever,” which merges into a portion of Linkin Park’s “In the End,” and then “Falling Apart,” which segues into a section on mental health and suicide awareness, complete with a Jacoby-narrated video on the big screens. An acoustic rendition of “Leave a Light On (Talk Away the Dark)” pays tribute to those affected, with Jacoby requesting a moment of silence at the end to pay respects.

The floor is ready for another rumble by now, though, and even power ballad “Scars” is enough to detonate the pit once more. Jacoby stokes the fires even more: “I love crowdsurfers, can I get some crowdsurfers?!” Of course you can, Jacoby. Plenty oblige on next song “BRAINDEAD,” but it’s not enough: “I want more crowdsurfers and more singing!” Jeepers, this guy is never satisfied. Place Bell obliges once more on “Help,” and then nu-metal stormer “Born for Greatness,” to close out the main set.

The Infest record finally gets a little more representation once the encore arrives, “Between Angels and Insects” remixed with a somewhat space-age intro, but, of course, exploding into flames and smoke stacks once the drums drop. “Infest” follows to continue the throwback, Jacoby wandering into the seats for the outro and then doing a full circuit of the seating blocks, shaking hands and taking selfies as the rest of the band run through the “nu-metal time machine” part of the set (Jacoby’s label, not mine), basically assorted clips of nu-metal songs from their contemporaries of that Y2K era (namely, “Blind,” “My Own Summer (Shove It),” “Break Stuff,” and “Chop Suey”). When Jacoby returns to the stage, a monstrous “Last Resort” closes out the 90 minutes in thunderous manner, the floor going nuts one last time.

Before he leaves the stage, Jacoby declares, “Quebec, I cannot wait to do this again with you!” Judging by the smiling faces heading out into the cold December night, Quebec can’t wait to do it again either!