The Used - 25th Anniversary Tour - Sydney (06/09/25)

Sydney finally got the spring night it had been waiting for. After weeks of cold, wet gigs, the air outside was soft and forgiving. A few brave punters risked shorts, others drifted between bar and footpath to soak it in, but inside Liberty Hall the buzz had already settled into a low, electric hum. Merch lines coiled, drinks moved fast, and the crowd — a touch different to the previous two nights, noticeably more women — felt primed long before a single note rang out.

Hevenshe walked on first. No excess, no drama: drums tucked stage-right, guitar and vocal centred; a stage picture that felt intimate and unforced. Jenna McDougall carried herself like someone playing a hometown show — confident, yes, but grounded. She acknowledged Gadigal Country — “always was, always will be” — and reminded us she’s been gigging in Sydney since she was sixteen. Sixteen years later, the gratitude still shows.

The set found its own pulse. Wild Wild Heart and Trying Not to Feel cracked the room open; Wish I Had a Friend and These Days tightened the confessional thread. Before Dear Life, Jenna paused to talk about gratitude — five things you can see, feel, hear, touch when you’re lost — a small ritual to pull yourself back into the moment. The reflection bled into the song, slower and tender, giving her drummer on that shimmering blue Ludwig kit space to bloom. Floor Bed and Essential lifted the energy again, and somewhere in there she grinned: “You’re in for a treat tonight — The Used say they’re the best band in the world… and they are.” It was the kind of support that warms the room without competing — generous, disarming — and it left the crowd hungrier for what was coming.

Nine o’clock. The white screen dropped across the stage and rolled through decades of Used footage before cutting to a close-up of the In Love and Death CD being prised open. Nostalgia as prologue. Tension as overture. Then the screen fell, the band stepped forward, and Liberty Hall went incandescent.

Take It Away did exactly that — tore the roof clean off. Then the first curveball: Jenna back out for I Caught Fire, trading lines with Bert McCracken and turning a cult favourite into a communal sing, bright and celebratory. From there the night unfurled like the record itself — Let It Bleed raw and relentless; All That I’ve Got bittersweet, bruised around the edges; Cut Up Angels in a hushed 6/8 sway, Jeph seated back near the kit, the whole room holding its breath.

Bert was carnival barker and ringmaster in one. “Thanks for coming out tonight, Sydney — I can’t think of anywhere I’d rather be than watching a Used concert,” he beamed early. Later he turned the screws: “Last night we had a pretty big pit… I know you guys can do better.” They could. They did. Before Listening he threw down one more challenge: “This one’s a sing-along — if you don’t know the words, make up your own fucking words.”

Hard to Say became the night’s most tender eruption: thousands of voices carrying it while phone torches freckled the room. Lunacy Fringe bounced back in with a grin and a cheeky “Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!” from Bert — full Aussie mode engaged. And then I’m a Fake closed the circle, his diary-spoken-word blistering into one last detonation from the band.

The ending played like theatre. Final chords fizzled, the four of them stepped up and sent sticks, picks and setlists spinning into the crush, then took a long, unhurried bow. Last night in Sydney — and they made sure it felt like one.

Outside, the quotes wrote the epilogue. A diehard, sweat-soaked and hoarse, slapped his mate’s shoulder: “Mate, I’ve been with them since 2001 and they’ve never let me down. Twenty-five years, and tonight still felt dangerous.” Nearby, a younger woman clutching a fresh Hevenshe tee put it differently: “I only came for Jenna, but I’m leaving a Used fan. That was unmissable.”

Nights like this remind you why whole albums still matter — because sometimes the past isn’t just remembered; it’s relived.

Thanks to the The Used, Hevenshe, Destroy All Lines, Dallas Does PR and the Liberty Hall for having us along

Photos and Review by Andy Kershaw for Music Kingdom Australia