[ATTENDED: August 2, 2016] Refused
I had never heard of Refused before this show. I looked them up and saw that they are a Swedish punk band who supports pretty radical ideas. The thing I missed though was that their most well known album, The Shape of Punk to Come, came out in 1998!
The band broke up right after that album (their 3rd). They reunited in 2012 with much the same lineup (there had been some different band member in the original days as well). Last year they put out a new album and here they were touring with Deftones.
From the little I’d read, it sounded like they were a hardcore band. So I had very specific expectations. But they were instantly dashed when I heard the very metal riffage that the guitarists produced.
The band started on a bad note though by taking a really long time to come out on stage. Spotlights had been disassembled and the event had turned off the house lights so we were all psyched. Then they played some kind of feedback wail for easily 5 minutes before the band came out. This put everyone on edge a bit I think.
Although I have to admit that having their bass drum head look like this did make me smile.
Then the band came out. And they were nothing like I expected. They were dressed up in long sleeve button down shirts and lead singer Dennis Lyxzén was wearing a red suit and the jacket had large buttons down the back. It was quite a look.
And he had the stage presence down. He would whip his microphone around, swing it by the cord, pull it back just in time. He danced around on the monitors upfront. He had the whole thing perfect.
I was particularly impressed with his impassioned speeches about the system and not giving in to the man. Although even more impressive was his insistence on gender equality and that it’s up to men to not make women afraid–not for women to change for us.
Since I didn’t know any of their songs, I can’t confirm the set list, although listening to some songs today it seems like it’s the same setlist from their other shows.
For the third song, “Rather Be Dead,” Lyxzén climbed off the stage and walked right into the audience (roadies and audience holding his microphone cord aloft). He walked right past me and then went to a feral group of fans and sang along the chorus of “rather be alive.” It was pretty cool.
The rest of the band didn’t move around very much. I was in front of Mattias Bärjed (touring guitarist) and Magnus Flagge the bassist who made some awesome heavy metal poses.
Original guitarist Kristofer Steen was on the other side of the stage and I never got a good view of him.
But it was the drummer, David Sandström who rivaled Lyxzén for attention-getting. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone hit their drums as hard as he hit them. When he first stated playing I marveled at the way the set bounced up and down. That’s probably not too unusual, but when he steadily smashed the cymbals or just pounded away, I was genuinely shocked at how much power he put into it–like he wanted to destroy the drums. Top that off with the one drum he had at the top of his kit which was there exclusively (I think) for his fist–he would pound on this drum every once in a while for emphasis. It was pretty intense.
The set was really good, although the crowd didn’t seem all that into it. I assumed that there were going to be as many people for them as for Deftones. Some people certainly knew them though and they sang along and waved fists accordingly. As the show progressed I felt like the songs got even better with my favorite being “Worms of the Senses/Faculties of the Skull” which had a great light show accompanying it. And of course, Lyxzén was animated and fun (and screaming) through most of the songs.
Today while looking up some information about the band, I realized that they were a pretty iconic later 90s punk band, highly regarded and greatly appreciated. Evidently their breakup was quite a tragedy (a short film was even made about it called Refused are Fucking Dead). After watching this I feel like I should have appreciated the band a little more while I was watching them.
But I did enjoy them quite a bit, and having listened to some of their songs today, I feel like their output is worth investigating more (and that if I had known the songs I would have really enjoyed the show a lot more).
SETLIST (best guess)
Elektra
The Shape of Punk to Come
Rather Be Dead
Dawkins Christ
The Deadly Rhythm
Destroy the Man
Coup d’état
Refused are Fucking Dead
Servants of Death
Worms of the Senses/Faculties of the Skull
Summerholidays vs. Punkroutine
New Noise
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