The Used Share Their Favourite Memories Of Australia Ahead Of Their Anniversary Tour

The Used are back in Australia, celebrating 25 years as a band and playing their beloved first three albums in full: their self-titled 2002 debut, its Platinum-selling 2004 follow-up In Love And Death and 2007’s Lies For The Liars. They’re here for an exhaustive four-week, 21-date tour, with shows booked in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Fremantle. This, of course, is not the band’s first rodeo: The emo stalwarts first toured here back in 2005, and have remained a staple of the circuit since.

With that in mind, Music Feeds enlisted Jepha Howard – the band’s bassist and co-founder alongside frontman Bert McCracken – to share some of his favourite memories from across the band’s two decades of bringing their angsty anthems down under for the last two decades.

The Used – ‘The Taste Of Ink’

1. I Wanna Wanna Be A Walla-Wallaby

One time in Australia, I lured a wild wallaby up to me. I got to pet him! He was wild as hell. It was pretty far back; this must’ve been 15 years ago, at least. I think we were in Brisbane, and I think our manager rented a boat. We had a couple of days off and our actual manager was there, not our tour manager, so there was a reason why we were there. I think Bert actually met his wife that day, so a lot of things were going on there. I’m pretty sure this was actually around the Taste of Chaos era.

We rented a boat and we stopped at some island. Which makes it even more weird; there were wild wallabies on this island for some reason. I definitely bribed them with food, which is not cool to do with any kind of wild animal – especially in Australia where everything will kill you. But I didn’t think a wallaby was going to kill me in any way. I got to pet him a bunch, and it was really fun. He didn’t like it, but he wanted the food – so it all worked out for both of us.

2. On Your Bike!

The first time we went to Australia, we played this festival that Metal Mulisha were also performing at. We flew in, and the traffic was so bad that we almost couldn’t make the show. It was just a one road in, one road out kind of thing, and we were off to the side driving through the dirt with traffic bumper-to-bumper around us just trying to get to the show. People were pissed at us while we were trying to get through on the side. People were trying to cut us off, but if we didn’t make it in time, we weren’t going to play. We finally ended up making it to the show and ended up playing on time. That was really exciting! That was our first ever show in Australia, too. We barely made it because of how bad the traffic was and the clusterfuck that was going on, but we got there!

3. Creature Comforts

I also would say the bats are a favourite part of visiting Australia for me; I love animals, and specifically I love creatures. For me, being able to be up close and see all these awesome creatures and animals in Australia is a highlight. You guys are used to it; it’s the same with us over here. The difference? Everything’s gonna kill you over there.

I’ve lived in some crazy places; I lived in Hawaii for a while and we had Huntsman spiders that you’d find in corners of the house, but they were pretty small in comparison. They’re about half the size of the Huntsmans you guys have. They were cool, but nothing up against to what you guys get. For me, to be able to go over there and experience all the fun Australian creatures is really exciting.

4. Crank Yankers

During Taste of Chaos, we got this list. They’d put it under each door listing all the bands and all the crew; everyone on the tour was on there. We were with a band called The Bled, and our drummer at the time Dan [Whitesides] had the hotel room everybody went to party when the show was done. So, there we all were; in his room, with the list. At about 3:00am, somebody decided to start prank calling everybody on the list. That’s normally funny, but they called people so many times. They were just wrecked, and they kept calling rooms so many times that people started taking their phones off the hook. This was before iPhones and that sort of thing, because it was 2005.

All of the rooms had wake-up calls that were being called to the room the next morning, and since so many people took their phones off the hook about half the crew missed lobby call and were late and couldn’t shower. Everyone was pissed, they were so mad! They ended up finding out it was Dan’s room and so after the show that night, after we all got back to our hotel rooms, they went to Dan’s room with a bucket of ice and filled his bed with ice and then covered the bed up. All of the ice melted through his mattress and through onto the floor. He got back to his room and tried to get into his bed, and it was just like a sponge. It was soaked and freezing.

Dan ended up sleeping on the floor somewhere, and the hotel charged him for the damage room. It was like 10 grand for the bed and going through into the flooring; they had to fix the floors in the room and everything. It actually wasn’t even him that was doing the prank calling, it was just people in his room! We think it was the Rockstar Energy guys who were calling in his room, but we’re not sure. We still haven’t figured out who it was to this day, but that’s OK. Funny is funny!

5. The Most Unlikely Meet & Greet Of All Time

We get always get hotel rooms when we play in Australia, which is exciting to us. In the States you don’t get that; you play the show, you hang out and then you go to your bus and relax there. In Australia, it’s usually like this: they load you into a van, you play the show, they load you into a van, and then they get you the fuck out and then they drop you off at your hotel. It’s in and out – and quick!

One time in Australia, we were getting out and they loaded us into the van as quick as they could. There were all these fans waiting by the back gate; they knew that’s where the van was going to come through, and we were waving to them from inside. We wanted to stop and say hi, but the driver was trying to rush us through. We started driving, and then one fan was just bolting towards us; he was so fast. He was on the sidewalk next to us, and we were watching him the whole time; we couldn’t drive that fast. There was some traffic but he was still going, he was running his ass off – then he tripped, fell, landed face first and skidded to a halt.

You could hear it in the car when it happened; everybody was like, “Ohhhh!!!” It looked like it hurt so bad. “Pull over!,” Bert shouted. So, we stopped the car, opened the sliding door and yelled at this poor guy: “Get the fuck in here!” The guy jumps in the van with us, and thankfully he was fine. He didn’t get hurt, but he was shaking because he’d just wrecked himself. There was no blood or anything; he’s so lucky he didn’t get really hurt from that. We drove him to our hotel, and hung out with him.

It was so sad to see him eat shit, but ultimately it made his whole night! He thought it was pretty funny, and so did we. Us pulling over made his whole day; he was like, “I can’t believe you guys stopped for me! This is so cool!” He’s got a great memory that’ll last forever because he sprinted for our tour van. It’ll last for us forever too, so it’s a win-win for all of us!

The Used 25th Anniversary Tour 2025

Thursday, 7th August – Wednesday, 20th August: Supported by Hands Like Houses.

Friday 22nd August – Saturday, 6th September: Supported by Hevenshe.

Performing The Used

• Saturday, August 9th – The Forum, Melbourne VIC
• Wednesday, August 13th – The Tivoli, Brisbane QLD
• Sunday, August 17th – Liberty Hall, Sydney NSW
• Friday, August 22nd – Northcote Theatre, Melbourne VIC
• Tuesday, August 26th – Hindley St Music Hall, Adelaide SA
• Sunday, August 31st – Metropolis, Fremantle WA
• Friday, September 5th – Liberty Hall, Sydney NSW

Performing In Love & Death

• Sunday, August 10th – The Forum, Melbourne VIC
• Tuesday, August 12th – The Tivoli, Brisbane QLD
• Thursday, August 14th – The Tivoli, Brisbane QLD
• Tuesday, August 19th – Liberty Hall, Sydney NSW
• Saturday, August 23nd – Northcote Theatre, Melbourne VIC
• Thursday, August 28th – Hindley St Music Hall, Adelaide SA
• Monday, September 1st – Metropolis, Fremantle WA
• Saturday, September 6th – Liberty Hall, Sydney NSW

Performing Lies For The Liars

• Thursday, 7th August – The Forum, Melbourne, VIC
• Saturday, August 16th – The Tivoli, Brisbane QLD
• Wednesday, August 20th – Liberty Hall, Sydney NSW
• Monday, August 25th – Northcote Theatre, Melbourne VIC
• Friday, August 29th – Hindley St Music Hall, Adelaide SA
• Wednesday, September 3rd – Metropolis, Fremantle WA

All remaining tickets are on sale now from DestroyAllLines.com.

Further Reading

The Used: 10 Essential Tracks

Bad/Love vs Bad Juju: We Got Two Of BIGSOUND 2025’s Heaviest Bands To Interview Each Other

The Spill Canvas Share Their Top 10 Emo Anthems Ahead Of Debut Aussie Tour