The Used - 25th Anniversary Tour - Sydney (20/08/25)

Sydney’s winter rain was unrelenting, but Liberty Hall was once again packed tight. This was The Used’s third Sydney show in a week — after revisiting their debut on Sunday and ‘In Love and Death’ on Tuesday, tonight was ‘Lies for the Liars’ in full. For the dedicated, it was the kind of week you clear your calendar for: three nights, three albums, one band they’d follow anywhere.

Hands Like Houses took the stage first, delivering the same set as Sunday but with fresh bite. ‘Hollow’ drew one of the loudest cheers, Raven pausing to dedicate it: “This one’s going out to anyone going through tough times… you WILL get through this.” Their cover of ‘Wicked Game’ wavered when Raven burst out laughing after some cheeky crowd banter threw him off, but the band slammed straight into their heavy reimagined version, the audience singing the final chorus back at them in unison.

By ‘Paradise’, the pit had cracked wide open. “We’re at 59.7% — let’s crank it to 110%!” Raven demanded, and the floor obliged. For ‘ICU’, he dove down into the chaos himself: “I’m gonna come down there with you… if you want to fuck around, you can — I will be!” The circle welcomed him, bodies colliding, before he clambered back on stage for ‘I Am and Heaven’, thanking the crowd with sincerity: “I appreciate your voices, your attention — and for showing up when you don’t even know who the fuck we are.”

Then the screens lit up with a reel of The Used through the years — fragments of interviews, live footage, all building to a countdown. At zero, an image of the Lies for the Liars CD case cracked open, and the drop curtain fell. The band were already tearing into ‘The Ripper’, the stage suddenly drenched in bright reds and yellows, the drum riser stamped with the album’s title, the kick head still blazing “25.”

Bert McCracken hit the crowd running: “Thanks for coming out tonight, Sydney — I can’t think of anywhere else I’d rather be than watching a Used concert.” It was the start of ninety minutes of mayhem and intimacy in equal measure.

For ‘Paralyzed’, he hauled a dozen fans on stage: “I want to see you all shake your ass!” he barked, they did, and sang every word- midway through the song, he lead a wild call-and-response with the audience before ordering, “Now get the fuck off my stage!” 

A few songs later, he paused the chaos with something more personal: “It’s kind of a birthday for me — 13 years today since I’ve had a drink.” The roar from Liberty Hall was instant. Bert smirked: “I think I deserve a happy birthday.” The crowd sang, and in return he launched a birthday cake into the pit, cream exploding across the floor, then being thrown back to the stage. Through the rest of the set he kept circling back, shouting about the stage being covered in cream.

It wasn’t all madness. He spotted his wife in the audience, pointed, and said simply: “I love you.” The cheer that followed was as loud as any breakdown.

The band didn’t waste a second. ‘With Me Tonight’ became a mass singalong, ‘Wake the Dead’ thundered, and when Bert snarled “This song’s about you, you fucking liar!” before ‘Liar Liar’, the pit erupted again. The rarities hit hardest — ‘The Ripper’, ‘Smother Me’ — songs the crowd hadn’t heard in years, pulled off with total conviction.

As ‘Smother Me’ closed the set, Bert thanked the crowd for sticking with them for 25 years. After the last lingering piano note had faded, the house lights rose on a room of drenched, sweaty faces, every one of them beaming. Outside, in the wet winter night, voices carried over the drizzle. “That was the most fucked-up birthday party I’ve ever been to — cake and all.” Another fan wiped rain and sweat from his face: “Hearing Smother Me live? That’s bucket list shit.” And one more, clutching three crumpled tickets, just laughed: “Three shows this week — and I’d do it all again tomorrow.”

With two more Sydney shows still to come — The Used again on Friday the 5th of September, then ‘In Love and Death’ on Saturday the 6th — the celebration isn’t slowing down. The Used are proving, night after night, that this isn’t nostalgia. It’s still happening, right here, louder than ever.

Thanks to the The Used, Hands Like Houses, Destroy All Lines, Dallas Does PR and the Liberty Hall for having us along.

Review & Photos by Andy Kershaw for Music Kingdom Australia