With The Tivoli's foyer already packed for night one of four of The Used's 25th anniversary – four albums, four nights in Brisbane, no mercy – punters are swapping gig war stories, while the merch queue is curling past the bar like it's chasing a schooner.
Tonight's front-to-back feast (12 August) is 2004's 'In Love And Death', and the thought alone is having the crowd twitching with anticipation. Even the nightmare of Ekka-week parking is fading from memory.
Moving deeper inside the venue, I see a Hands Like Houses backdrop hung mid-stage, where the five-piece from Canberra is about to be hitting.
The lads launch straight into 'Wildfire', a fuzzy barrage of noise and presence that feels like it could wake the dead, with lyrics slapping hard on the idea the world's on an Armageddon trajectory.
Vocalist Josh Raven is nothing but a backlit silhouette, his voice winding around the jagged guitars and thunderous drums with precision.
From 'Division Symbols' to 'Panic', 'Colourblind’, 'Parasite' and 'Hollow', Matt Cooper (guitar), Alexander Pearson (guitar), Joel Tyrrell (bass), and Matt Parkitny (drums) stay tight as a diver's wetsuit, holding the room in a taut grip.
Hands Like Houses - image © Clea-marie Thorne
Their take on Chris Isaak's 'Wicked Game' is swapping silk for grit and earning cheers from every corner. Raven is warning things are about to ramp up. 'ICU' delivers in spades, his voice cutting clean through the chaos. 'Paradise' follows, Raven leaning into the barrier for personal shoutouts before 'I Am' hits, before 'Heaven' rounds off the set.
The house lights are staying low. Bar lines are growing. Roadies are clearing gear. The front row is tightening its death grip on the rail. Someone nearby is belting out 'The Bird And The Worm' (badly) to their mate. It's keeping the vibe alive and giving us a laugh.
The back half of the stage is cloaked with a calico sheet, becoming a makeshift projection screen with a flickering vintage TV countdown bleeding into a montage of The Used: tour chaos, rehearsals, album art, and quick-hit images from God knows when all blurring together.
The Used - image © Clea-marie Thorne
The drop is coming fast. Fabric is falling. The spoken intro is fading, and bang – The Used are exploding into 'Take It Away', the instrumentation loud as F.
The stage is breathing with lights and motion. Red beams are slicing through the haze, catching dust in sharp angles. The huge, glowing, blood-red anatomical heart (from the album cover) hangs above Dan Whitesides on his giant drum riser, while side strobes flicker in sync with every drum hit.
The set is immersive, pulling everyone's attention to the stage. Red light floods the crowd as Bert McCracken prowls the stage, dodging Joey Bradford's guitar swings. Whitesides continues to hammer away under that blood-red heart, locking into Jeph Howard's pulsing basslines.
McCracken scans the crowd. "Thank you for spending the night with us. We really appreciate it. . . I want to dedicate this song to the diehard fans out there. You know who you are. Everyone who has stuck by our side since day f...ing one!"
The Used - image © Clea-marie Thorne
The familiar riff of Bradford's guitar drops us into 'I Caught Fire'. It's pure emo gold, the crowd turning into a backup choir. The applause is barely fading before 'Let It Bleed' tears in.
"You having a good time?" McCracken teases. The cheer is decent, but he's shaking his head like we've failed. "Nah. . . I said are you having a f...ing good time?!" The second roar nearly takes the roof with it. "Let's make some f...ing memories tonight to last us for the rest of our beautiful lives!"
'Cut Up Angels' is trembling on the verses before detonating into the chorus. 'Listening' has the pit boiling over, elbows and hair flying as Whitesides throws in fills to keep the chaos just on the right side of collapse.
McCracken is grinning. "Sing-along — make the words up if you don't know 'em." No one's guessing, Bert! 'Yesterday's Feelings' is swaying the whole room in unison. The mood is cracking with banter about Brisbane fans on acid and a bloke spotted smoking crystal meth earlier.
"Open that sh.t back up!" he's yelling, and 'Light With A Sharpened Edge' bites hard, matching every heartbeat in the room. 'Sound Effects And Overdramatics' hits with a slower burn but no less force. The band is pushing enough energy to leave the walls humming.
The Used - image © Clea-marie Thorne
McCracken continues to work the crowd like a maestro corralling a symphony of punters. Arms are waving, fists punching the air, heads nodding in unison. He's calling out sing-alongs, pulling small groups into playful banter, and tossing winks to the diehards who know every lyric.
McCracken's voice is now dropping. He's telling us about the first love of his life, lost to an overdose, and how this next song pulled him through the wreckage and much of his life afterwards. The crowd is folding into a collective hug as 'Hard To Say' blooms into a full-room choir.
The vibe is turning bright again. "This is a dancing song, and if you've got two feet and an ass, use them!" 'Lunacy Fringe' is doing its job – heads snapping, bums wiggling, and fists stabbing skyward. The room is buzzing with shared memory and adrenaline, every emo heart feeling plugged into the same pulse.
Tonight, The Used aren't just playing songs – they're uniting the crowd, making us all feel like part of the chaos, the sadness, and the joy that built them over 25 years.
The Used - image © Clea-marie Thorne
Only one left. 'I'm A Fake'. The spoken-word intro is lulling for a moment, then the floor is dropping into a snarling breakdown. Guitars are growling, McCracken is spitting every word like it's his last, and the night is closing in glorious chaos.
No encore. Just grins. Guitar picks. Two ladies wrestling for a drumstick, and the diehards still clinging to the barrier. Many are coming back for 'Self-Titled' and 'Lies For The Liars'. Some are even planning to relive 'In Love And Death' all over again – The Used gig junkie's version of topping up.
It's been loud, sweaty but leaving us all grinning like a concert first-timer who's just copped a wall of sound of their favourite tracks in the face. The Used came, played and fair dinkum flattened The Tiv to fill our emo-lovin' music hearts.
More photos from the concert.
