Words by Cecilia Pattison-Levi
Pix by Sarah Gilpin
Brisbane’s Tivoli was the venue to be at as The Used kicked off the fourth and final night, celebrating their 25th anniversary as a band by playing their 2007 album Lies For The Liars. It was their last performance in Brisbane before heading to Sydney. The Used had Hands Like Houses as their supporting band, and they could not have had a better band to warm up the crowd. It has been four days of high emotion for fans: each night was unique as different albums were played on each night. Tuesday night had 2004’s In Love and Death, Wednesday night had 2002’s The Used, Thursday night repeated In Love and Death, and Saturday night had Lies for the Liars.
I lucked in and got a ticket for Saturday night. The sold-out crowd was buzzing. They transformed the Tivoli into a party where The Used’s legacy was to be celebrated. The crowd were ready to indulge in nostalgia, but they also wanted the present, and that was how the night kicked off.
The evening started promptly with Canberra-based post-hardcore band Hands Like Houses, and their original songs. They exploded onto the stage and delivered Wildfire and the crowd were blown away by the energy pouring from the band. They delivered a tight set of 11 songs, and the gig was emotionally charged as Parasite was played. It was followed by the fabulous song Space. By this stage of the gig, the lead singer, Josh Raven, had given some hecklers in the crowd the finger and taken complete ownership of the stage.
Hands Like Houses comprises Matt Cooper (guitar), Alexander Pearson (rhythm guitar), Joel Tyrrell (bass), Matt Parkitny (drums) and Josh Raven (vocals). It was astounding to watch this band do their job so well. By the time Division kicked in, Hands Like Houses had the whole venue jumping. The songs Panic and Hollow really set the crowd aflame, and the mosh had started. Bodies were jumping and colliding, and it was quite a spectacle.
Hands Like Houses sounded larger than life. The band slowed things down and left the mellifluous Josh Raven to sing a glorious cover of Chris Isaak’s Wicked Game before the band came back on stage, upped the tempo and performed a perfect punk-rock version of the classic song. Then, Raven said: “Right! We are at 57%, but now we are going to dial it up”. And, they did! The intensity went up as Paradise was delivered and then the song ICU as the moshing “with the boys” got frenetic.
Raven then did a shoey from his own shoe. He gave the other shoe thrown on stage back to the young girl and said: “a shoey in that! I am not that brave”. As he skulled down the drink: “that was disgusting,” he stated. Then, he put his shoe back on, and jumped into the crowd to perform I Am, and the crowd parted and then crashed into each other in a ball of energy. Raven returned to the stage and the band as they delivered the huge hit Heaven.
Hands Like Houses gave an exceptional performance and demonstrated that they are ready and have the set list and stagecraft to headline their own shows. They set up the night perfectly for The Used.
There was a short break as the stage was stripped of equipment. The crowd was entertained by watching the stage hands put up a huge curtain. Then, games of shadow puppets were being played. There were sing-alongs to 2007 hits: Avril Lavigne, Rihanna, and The Veronicas. The tension was building as the photographers got into place and the house lights went down.
A video projection then hit the white curtain and set the narrative around the band’s creation of the 2007 album Lies for the Liars from archival footage. The Used hit on a great way to take the crowd back to those heady days of the 2007. It was all about going back in time.
Then, the curtain lifted quickly, and The Used pumped out the energy from the first chord of The Ripper. The album Lies For The Liars saw The Used experiment with electronics, and the production values on the record were highly polished. The band: Bert McCracken (vocals/piano), Jepha Howard (bass/backing vocals), Dan Whitesides (drums/backing vocals) and Joey Bradford (guitar/ backing vocals) took risks on this record. It was the album that broke them into the mainstream rock arena. Their other albums are fan favourites, but it is this album that showed what The Used could do musically. McCracken stopped to address the crowd with a “hello” and then he stated: “I am so happy to play this album live tonight. We don’t usually play these songs live. But this is my, and the band’s, favourite album”.
The Used delivered a truly engaging performance as they blasted into a frantic delivery of Pretty Handsome Awkward and then the huge hit single from the album, the dark, The Bird and the Worm, was delivered with all its glorious drama. McCracken then told the crowd that he was now an Australian as he had his citizenship, and the band are now looking to live here and get their new lives. I said to the young women around me – marriage is the easiest way – and I was told “we are prepared to make that sacrifice”. The Used mentioned the earthquake today in Brisbane as they delivered their first love song of the night. They took the crowd down a notch as they delivered the rock ballad Earthquake. The song was a highlight of the album with its pop sensibilities and massive melodic hook, and played live, it was even better.
The Used were tight and controlled throughout the delivery of the album, but it was Whitesides’ brilliant drumming that was the beating heart of the performance. He brought in the drum beats and kicks as the band delivered the huge shout-along song of Hospital. The crowd was so into the performance, and it was so easy to tell that McCracken was having a ball. He said: “I hope you are having as much fucking fun as I am having”. He, then, invited fans onto the stage to dance during the song Paralyzed, and it was wild and chaotic.
The Used refocused the crowd, with McCracken stating: “You are so lucky to see my ass on stage” as he faced the drummer as the rest of the band ripped into the pop-punk of With Me Tonight. The sing-along made the crowd fizz, and it filled the Tivoli with a huge surge of emotion. Then, McCracken’s agitated vocals brought the punk attitude alive in Wake The Dead. He channelled the piercing screams that were on the album stunningly.
Then, the second love song of the night, Find A Way, was played. McCracken was a true frontman: he was charismatic, and he constantly engaged the crowd with comments, heckles and his “great self-esteem”. The Used brought the heavy back in with the delivery of Liar Liar (Burn in Hell) as the crowd sang every line back to them. Then McCracken stopped and told the crowd: “The Used have been an Emo band for 25 years. We have never broken up. We have been together. And, we are the best band in the world – my esteem is good”.
He then explained: “We are going to play you a B Side” as The Used launched into delivering Pain, with its beautiful chiming guitars played by Joey Bradford. They closed out the delivery of the album and the gig with the slow-burning finale. It was the six-minute love song and rock ballad, Smother Me, with bunches of roses in front of every musician on stage. As the song ended, the band threw the roses into the crowd along with guitar picks, and one hit our photographer which made her night!
It was an astonishing live performance: tight, impassioned, polished and brimmed full of raw energy. The Used’s performance and delivery of Lies For The Liars was, according to the people around me who had attended every night, the band’s finest concert of the four nights.
The Used, as a band, has stood together for over the past 25 years: they have continued to bring to fans emotional honesty, theatrical chaos, and unrelenting connection. They reminded everyone at the Tivoli that The Used don’t just play songs—they create memories – and so many new memories were created last night.
