The Used Perform “In Love and Death” In Its Entirety for Austin On Their 25 Year Anniversary Tour!

The Used headlined a show at Emo’s in Austin, Tx on October 28th, 2025 with support from Myka Relocate on their 25 Year Anniversary Tour!

The Used are celebrating their 25-year mark by performing their early catalogue of albums in full, one album each night. One of those nights is entirely dedicated to In Love and Death (2004). The band opened with the album, track-by-track, no extra encore. The staging, visuals, and set design played heavily into nostalgia including an archival video with the CD-jewel-case imagery, and a large suspended heart (representing the album artwork) hanging over the stage.

The crowd was filled with older “scene kids” from the early 2000s alongside younger fans who recently discovered the band. The album that defined the emo era and teenage angst was brought fully to life. Even though this is an older album, the band delivered with a staggering punch. Opening track “Take It Away,” kicked off this nostalgic set with high energy which was maintained all the way until “I’m a Fake” closed with full force. The fans were singing their hearts out for “I Caught Fire” and “All That I’ve Got”. They kept their audience fully engaged from start to finish with sing-alongs, mosh pits, and plenty of crowd surfing. This night was truly reminiscent to the era it was conceived.

McCracken stated:

”When I wrote this record there was a lot of tragedies going on in my life.”

McCracken added:

”In Love and Death is where all the serious, dedicated, and die hard fans come out.”

The show delivered everything it promised and more. For longtime fans of The Used and this album in particular, it was an emotionally charged ride back to a highly acclaimed record. The mixing of nostalgia with a high energy live performance made it more than just “a trip down memory lane,” it felt alive with a communal gathering among like-minded peers. For someone less familiar with the album, the performance quality and crowd energy still made it very worthwhile.

McCracken exclaimed:

“We have been an emo band for 25 fucking years! We never broke up.”

Remembering The Used – In Love And Death

(2004)

By Nicholas Seymour

There’s something about 2004’s In Love and Death that still feels immediate. It’s frantic, fragile, and fully committed to feeling everything at once—the kind of record that doesn’t just revisit heartbreak but rebuilds itself from its ruins. The Used didn’t clean up their chaos here; they learned how to live in it.

Take It Away

A crash of feedback, a scream, and then the world explodes. The opener still feels like an anxiety attack wrapped in distortion—raw, unrelenting, almost primal. It’s Bert McCracken standing in the wreckage of his own thoughts, daring the listener to look away first.

I Caught Fire

One of the band’s most enduring love songs, though “love” here feels closer to obsession. The guitars shimmer, the chorus soars, and McCracken sings like he’s clinging to someone who’s already slipping away. It’s that kind of passion that burns too hot to last, but you chase it anyway.

Let It Bleed

Aggression and melody collide perfectly here. “This poison’s my intoxication” isn’t just a lyric—it’s a thesis. The Used sound tighter, more deliberate, but no less feral. Every scream feels earned, every hook hits like a fist through drywall.

All That I’ve Got

Bittersweet and beautiful. Written after McCracken’s personal loss, this song bleeds sincerity. The hook is massive, but the sadness behind it gives it gravity. It’s the moment the record stops hiding behind volume and admits how much it hurts.

Cut Up Angels

Soft, strange, and slightly haunted. It drifts through the middle of the record like smoke—melancholy but peaceful. When McCracken sings, “If we cut out the bad, well then we’d have nothing left,” it feels like the emotional center of the entire album: love and pain as inseparable halves of the same pulse.

Listening

Short, sharp, and tightly wound. It’s more restrained than the band’s usual fare, but the tension underneath it makes it one of the record’s sleepers. It’s the quiet kind of heartbreak—the one that sits in silence and waits.

Yesterday’s Feelings

This song feels like the memory of the first album echoing back from a distance. There’s longing here, but also a strange calm. It’s a track that doesn’t scream for attention; it lingers. The Used proving they can whisper just as effectively as they can wail.

Light With a Sharpened Edge

Equal parts polish and pain. The production shines a little brighter here, but there’s still venom underneath. You can almost feel the band trying to evolve—stretching their sound without sanding down the emotion.

Sound Effects and Over Dramatics

If In Love and Death had a mission statement, this would be it. The title mocks itself, but the song commits completely. Theatrical, unpredictable, and self-aware in all the right ways. It’s The Used at their most gloriously messy.

Hard to Say

A ballad that trades screaming for sorrow. It’s heartbreak without armor—McCracken’s voice cracks just enough to make it real. The song aches in every direction: regret, apology, the things we never said out loud.

Lunacy Fringe

Gentle, reflective, and cautiously hopeful. It’s the moment in the storm when the rain slows and the air clears. There’s fragility here, but also rebirth. “We’re all on the edge of something new,” he sings—and maybe, for the first time, he believes it.

I’m a Fake

The perfect closer. The spoken intro feels like a confession before everything collapses into one last explosion of chaos. The Used don’t end on resolution—they end on honesty. It’s ugly, cathartic, and completely fitting.

Final Thoughts

In Love and Death is the sound of growing pains in real time—a record about learning how to carry loss instead of escape it. It’s more refined than their debut but no less sincere, balancing venom with vulnerability.

Two decades later, it still stands as a time capsule of early-2000s emotion—when love and grief felt endless, and screaming along in your car was the only kind of therapy that worked.