You wouldn’t picture the crowd awaiting the start of a concert featuring The Used to be singing in unison to Salt-N-Pepa’s “Push It”. Luckily, the crowd at Saturday night’s concert in Providence, Rhode Island was a wide array of music lovers with one common link: they were all there to rock out to great music—and fans were not let down. The throbbing masses were warmed up with the heavy punk hits from Los Angeles-based band, Drive A, who joined The Used yet again for this leg of their North American tour. Lead singer Bruno Mascolo kept the crowd alive and into the show, continuously asking “are you ready for the [expletive] Used!?” the crowd roared as they played hits like “Head Underwater” and “Are You Blind?” as the young band of energized punks set the stage for a night of even bigger, louder fun.   After a brief set change, the lights went out and the crowd roared, as metal favorites Atreyu ascended the stage. It was clear that they had quite an extensive fan base at Lupo’s that night, as the crowd thrashed to the heavy metal sounds of the Orange Country crew.  After about 50 minutes of hit after hit, including such favorites as “Falling Down”, “Someone’s Standing on My Chest”, and “Gallows”, they warned the assembled rock n; rollers that we were in for one wild night.    The crowd grew antsy as they awaited the show they really came to see. Lights went down. Drummer Dan Whitesides took the stage first, followed by guitarist Quinn Allman and bassist Jeph Howard. The trio played hard tunes, building anticipation. The screams built, and the roar that filled the room quickly erupted into pandemonium as lead singer Bert McCracken waltzed onto the stage. With all four members in place, The Used was a force to be reckoned with, and had the audience in their tight grips for the next hour and a half. The band didn’t waste any time and opened up with “Blood on My Hands”, their huge hit single off their latest album “Artwork.”  McCracken’s crowd involvement was, and always has been, a trademark of his on-stage antics, taunting and seducing the crowd with his one-liners and off-the-cuff remarks.     It was surprising that the band decided to play only a handful of songs from their latest album, and instead focused on mostly older stuff; a decision that was well-received by the fans. In their last song before their encore, McCracken instructed the crowd to split down the middle, parted like the Red Sea, 30-40 feet deep. “Wait for it. Wait for it,” he warned. After the unmistakable opening riff of the hit “Pretty Handsome Awkward” (off 2007’s “Lies for the Liars”) sounded, the crowd exploded with the break of the song, the general admission floor looking like a sea of wild animals charging at each other, thrashing around to the rock hit. The guys thanked the club and departed the stage, lights still dim. “One more song! One more song!” the crowd pleaded. Not ones to let their fans down, they returned to the stage for a two song encore of the mellow “On My Own” and capped the night, as they usually do, with their hard, vicious “Box of Sharp Objects.”   Overall, the whole night was an overflow of hardcore music, honest moving lyrics, and lots of dancing. Leaving Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel, among sweaty fans with smudged makeup and smiles, one fan turned to his friends and summed up the whole night perfectly: “Dude, that was freakin’ awesome.”