It’s always a good day when a veteran of Warped Tour comes to The Clyde Theatre. It’s an even better day when they bring along a band that my middle-school heart loved as well. 

The Used will be in town Wednesday, Sept. 25, and they won’t be alone, as they will have special guests the Plain White T’s and Raue with them. 

Festive pairing

The Used have stayed busy with tours alongside the likes of Pierce the Veil, The Story of the Year and Taking Back Sunday, just to name a few.

When I first heard about this tour, I had to pause because the bands are in totally different genres. You’ve got emo/punk rock mixed with alternative pop, which in my brain is mixing Plain White T’s hit “Hey There Delilah” with The Used’s “The Bird and The Worm,” which is confusing. 

But come to find out, The Used got to know the Plain White T’s in Brazil this year at the I Wanna Be festival. After becoming friends, they decided to do an U.S. tour together.

I genuinely love when tours have mixed genres because it opens the gates to different fans that may have never had the chance to see the other band. 

I’ve seen The Used a few times, but the band themselves started back in 2000. 

Starting in Orem, Utah, the band began with drummer Branden Steineckert, guitarist Quinn Allman, bassist Jepha, and frontman Bert McCracken, with Dan Whitesides and Joey Bradford now having replaced Steineckert and Allman. 

The band name is said to come from the feeling of being used, which we all can relate to in some form or another. 

The Used have been very open about their struggles and hardships with substance abuse and addiction, and the journey to sobriety. With heavy influences about these difficult topics in their songs, their second album, In Love and Death, was written during the tragedy of McCracken’s ex-girlfriend, who passed away from a drug overdose while she was pregnant with their child. 

They have released eight more studio albums and are showing no signs of slowing down. 

Hardships

The Used’s most recent album, Medz, was released this summer as a B-side to their 2023 album Toxic Positivity. 

I got to speak with bassist Jepha about the upcoming tour and the making of Medz. 

“The recording process of Toxic Positivity was during COVID,” he said. “We flew out and got back together again in the middle of it. We were going stir crazy because we obviously wanted to work and have fun and see each other because their all my best friends and we love writing and jamming together.

“Bert was going through some substance-abuse problems in the middle of this during the recording and we had to also deal some other issues that were coming up together that were kind of accumulated in Bert having this issue. 

“So, recording this was very interesting, for Bert especially. He was battling these demons at the same time that we’re trying to write and jam music and get him out of this dark, because he was really in this dark space, right? 

“So the reason I say ‘present’ as the emotion (to describe recording the album) is because of him being around us and being present for recording. 

“We did two different sessions, too. The first session was about two weeks long and trying to blast out as many songs as we can in like 10-12 days. We ended up doing a song a day, at least: Sometimes two songs a day which is kind of crazy. We were just jamming. If it was cool, let’s just keep rolling with it. Luckily everything turned out pretty good, that’s how we got these two records. 

“So, we split the records in two different sections. There’s the Toxic Positivity section which all sort of cohesively fit together, and the songs that didn’t fit in that is sort of what fit in Medz. 

“And the title Medz fits with what was going on during both of those as well. The doctor prescribed meds that are altering and making things harder and worse on you.” 

Sticking together

We talked about how the band have remained close through hard times, and that when they get together to write music or go on tour it’s some of their favorite times because outside of tours, they live far apart. 

Jepha is a traveler and doesn’t like to stay in the same place for more than a couple years. McCracken lives in Australia with his wife and family, so when they can actually get to be together, they are all present and able to help each other. 

Jepha reiterated over and over how close the band is which a lot of the times we don’t see. Bands fall apart often, especially founding members, but this band has been through every high and every low together. 

That definitely are a unique situation that is very refreshing to see in this industry. 

So, on Thursday, Sept. 25, grab your favorite emo shirt and head out to The Clyde Theatre for a night of moshing and screaming your heart out.