'It's Almost Surreal': The Used On Celebrating 25 Years With A Massive Aussie Tour

It was 25 years ago this year that a group of Utah musicians came together to form The Used, completely unaware of what the future held.

Those early days were prolific for the group – which comprised long-standing vocalist vocalist Bert McCracken and bassist Jeph – and before long they were working hard on the music that would make up their self-titled 2002 debut album.

With singles like The Taste Of Ink and Buried Myself Alive, the group hit the charts in the US and toured relentlessly.

That success only continued with 2004's In Love And Death, which helped the band truly ahem catch fire, hitting #6 in the US largely thanks to singles such as I Caught Fire, All That I've Got, and Take It Away. Fast-forward another three years and the group would reach their current career high of #5 on the US charts with Lies For The Liars, with tracks like The Bird And The Worm and Pretty Handsome Awkward helping them hit that high.

They've continued to release albums since (last year brought with it their tenth album, Medz), and along the way, they've continued to tour Australia relentlessly, with ten tours of the county to their name in the past 20 years.

Next month, however, The Used are upping the ante considerably, returning to Australia as part of their 25th anniversary tour. Performing their first three albums in full across multiple different nights, the group have plotted 21 huge shows across Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide, and Fremantle, with the likes of Hands Like Houses and Hevenshe joining them on select dates.

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With the group gearing up to practically live on Australian stages for a full month, bassist Jeph took the time to reflect on the past 25 years for the group.

After all, on one hand, it could easily be chalked up to a wild run of luck for the group to have succeeded so much for so long, but on the other, it's a testament to the group's dedication and hard work.

"You don't expect things to last forever, and with the band, I kind of live in the moment," Jeph admits. "Because every day is something special, every day is incredible, every tour is incredible, and everything that we do is – for me at least – just excitement.

"So I try not to live in the past or in the future, which is easier said than done, but it's almost surreal to even try to imagine that we've been a touring band for so long. It's not just like ten years, which is a huge accomplishment. 20 years is insane, but 25 years is surreal in so many ways.

"It feels good to be a part of something that is still going and still cares."

For The Used, their commercial break came about around 2004 alongside the release of In Love And Death, though it was the success of their self-titled debut that set the scene for their massive break.

As Jeph explains, it was the 2002 edition of the Warped Tour that helped them break through and find their larger audience.

"When we first started, it was hard for us to play shows because the venue wouldn't allow us back because somebody got hurt, or we were too screamy, or we were too much, or they couldn't handle us and didn't know how to put us into a category, so we couldn't play that venue again, or the venue would close down," Jeph recalls. "There was always something."

The solution was for the band to do the opposite of what most aspiring bands would do, and instead of performing live as much as possible, they took to writing and jamming as much as they could. The result was a band not worried about the outside world for the time being, but by the time they were ready to strike, they were absolutely prepared.

That preparation took them to the 2002 Warped Tour, where they played 41 of the tour's 48 dates on a side stage. "It was so hot," he remembers. "I can't remember the exact venue or what city it was in, but the power went out completely during The Taste Of Ink. Quinn [Allman] was our guitar player at the time, it was a guitar line that started with the vocals, and then all of a sudden the power went out completely.

"The crowd carried that whole song. Branden [Steineckert, drummer] kept playing drums the entire time, he didn't stop – that's the number one rule; you don't stop playing," he adds. "We kept playing the song, the crowd sang along to the entire thing and they turned the power back on. Right when the last chorus was about to hit, all the power came back on, all of us came back in and it was like perfect.

"It was seamless. It almost felt like we did it on purpose. It was the first time that we realised that people are really excited to see us. It was a packed house and people sang every single word of The Taste Of Ink and they carried the vocal part. That could have been a disaster, depending on the show, but it was really cool."

This year, The Used's 25th anniversary has brought with it a massive run of shows around the globe, including 21 incredibly well-received shows in Australia. However, it's a massive undertaking, and one that would undeniably take its toll on the band.

So the question needs to be asked: Why revisit full albums each night instead of a lengthy set of their greatest hits? "It's so much cooler to play three shows than one show," Jeph answers succinctly.

"On the 16th year anniversary, we did the first two records, which is really fun, and it worked out better than we thought it was going to work out," he adds. "So we've joked since then that on the 25th, we're going to do three records.

"It wasn't for sure it was going to happen because of how hard it is to make something like that work – playing a full tour with three different records in each city – but it ended up working better than we could possibly imagine."

The result, too, is an extended opportunity for fans to look back on the records that have soundtracked their lives and to live in the moment once again with full playthroughs of these seminal albums.

"We want to honour each record separately for what it is because we have fans that love the first record," Jeph continues. "We have fans that love the second record. We have fans that love the third and the fourth and the fifth.

"We have fans that love each record independently, and it's almost like separating 'em, segregating 'em helps people independently like that record for what it is, as opposed to just throwing a bunch of records together and just playing a whole set.

"Not everybody can do that," he adds. "So we are very lucky that we could do something that cool."

Of course, while the fans are themselves looking back at the band's history and reminiscing on their own experiences, so too does it give the band a chance to reflect on what these albums meant to them.

According to Jeph, the result of that is the band entering a different era-specific headspace for each album, and themselves living through the record and the associated memories as they play through it.

"Each record has its own nostalgia to it, and being able to relive each record independently has been so much fun for all of us," he explains.

"We get to talk about it during rehearsals. We get to talk about each record and the things that have happened, the things that we've gone through, the recording process they remember, and all these little things that pop up, which is super exciting for us.

"It's the chance to relive your own life, but being able to do it in front of people that want to hear your own life is a really interesting feeling and emotion that it's hard for me to put into words," he adds.

The Used's forthcoming tour will mark their 11th time on Australian shores, though for McCracken, it's hardly a trek, given he's lived in Sydney for 12 years.

However, The Used's Australian fanbase has been a voracious one for the entirety of their career, tracing back beyond their first stop to the country in 2005, and to their earliest releases.

"We've loved Australia so much since the first time we went there," Jeph explains. "You guys have a great culture, you've got great food, and it's a great fan base.

"I would say Australia connected the hardest versus the States. The States we connected with first, obviously because we're from there, but I would say it'd be Australia as the strong second.

"It's almost overpowering in some ways, which is exciting. I remember back in the day, in the very beginning with our first record there were fans calling the radio saying to the announcer to take us off the radio. I think they wanted us to themselves and they didn't want the radio to play it because they wanted us to be more underground.

"But we've had a really serious connection with Australia, since back in the beginning, which I still appreciate."

That strong connection has extended to 2025 as well, where the band's 25th anniversary tour has just kept on growing. Initially announcing 15 shows (three shows for each of the five tour stops, each featuring one of their first three albums performed in full) back in December, the demand for the tour has grown so much that the group will now be performing a total of 21 shows.

Of course, such a massive response doesn't particularly come as a surprise for the band, given their affinity with the country. "I knew it was going to go well in Australia because of how we work there, so we already knew that it was gonna be okay at least.

"It was gonna do better than the UK, which is tough. Europe is tough because of how far it is and Australia's farther, but for some reason it feels a lot closer to us at home. Maybe hometown pride for Bert living there, but we've always loved it and we're really excited.

"It's definitely going crazier than we could have imagined. It's wild in every way," he adds. "It's really fucking wild, man. It's really wild. I can't believe I'm gonna be there for so long."

Of course, while it would be wonderful to think that The Used might be close to breaking some Australian records for their extensive Australian touring plans, they've still got a long way to go before they reach the record books.

Notably, Pink played 46 sold-out shows in Australia back in 2013, though reports are unreliable as to whether she dropped A Box Full Of Sharp Objects into her set anywhere.

But with such a long time spent in the music game, and with 25 years spent in one of the most beloved bands in the genre, Jeph admits there's been plenty to learn about the concept of longevity when it comes to making and playing music.

"What has changed is the way that people get music, what has not changed is music and people caring about music," he explains. "The problem is always the people trying to exploit bands and exploit musicians and exploit all of that just for money – which is garbage. Money ruins everything, obviously.

"It's a necessity, unfortunately, because we all live in capitalist areas. Money is a necessity, which sucks, but music is music. What's cool is that everything's cyclical too. I've heard so many bands that are coming out nowadays that sound like Nirvana.

"And Nirvana to me was like a fuck you to like mainstream in so many ways, and I'm seeing that come around again with things like AI and computers which are sort of fucking making everything like perfect in every single way and people are not perfect," he continues. "What I've always cared about is imperfection.

"I love imperfection in every sense. Like wood, pottery, or paintings, or guitar playing or bass playing. A mistake makes something more important to me. It shows the imperfection, it shows the reality of it.

"I'm excited to see bands that come around that are sounding more imperfect and just more grungey and more Nirvana-esque. I'm excited to see more of that; the mess, the feedback, and the experimentation."

Tickets to The Used's upcoming Australian tour are on sale now.