Refused’s Frontman Dennis Lyxzén started by saying that his band was from Sweden, and what do I know about Swedish music? Not much, but wait, it didn’t take me long to understand we weren’t into ABBA territory. Honestly I knew that already, but experiencing Refused live is a complete different story. It was pure punk energy, unleashed anger, raw power and mayhem everywhere.
‘You know what you are hitting for?’ had asked me a nice security guard before the show, seeing I was waiting in the front,… thank you for reminding me, I knew it already, I was expecting typhoon force 100, but I have survived Bad Brains and a Black Flag reunion, so I was ready; but still careful enough to move on the side to avoid the giant twister mosh-pit-crowd-surfing which started right away.
The band was closing the FYF fest on Saturday night, and despite the late hour and the exhausting day in the heat, the crowd was huge to witness Refused’s first LA show ever.
‘I’ve got to apologize a little bit’, said Lyxzén, I’m sorry that it took us 20 years to make it to Los Angeles.’ He explained the band had only played a show in Corona in 1996 supporting Good Riddance but had never made it to LA. He found surreal to be headlining the festival's main stage, thanking us to still be able to play these songs, ‘because of people like you that kept them alive.’
It may have been their first show, but they played it as if it were their revenge, one influential and political song after another, all animated by ferocious hardcore riffs, punk beats, and a constantly jumping frontman, elegantly dancing, punching the air and screaming with rage, while doing all kind of acrobatics, even climbing on amps or on the side of the stage.
I have seen a few hardcore shows, but these guys sounded like the real thing, angry as hell, but smart, reminding us about the power of music, and how these angry songs, which had been written in the 90s to ‘mean something’, were still extremely raw and relevant in the current world,
Everyone had probably noticed that a ‘Free Pussy Riot’ was written on the drum set, and they dedicated ‘Rather Be Dead’ to their ‘Russian friends’ who had protested against church and state and got two years. Lyxzén was definitely a talker and was doing these political-inspirational talks between the songs focusing on the power of music able to threat a government. ‘Punk means purpose’, ‘it changed my life’, ‘music can be a force’ were the numerous messages given throughout the show, and received by the crowd with more fierce moshing and surfing.
They knew how to keep the audience on constant alert with their muscular and destructive songs, outbursts of bipolar rage, and I thought they wouldn’t able to match the energy on the next one but they were proving me wrong each time. After a particularly powerful ‘New Noise’, Lyxzén gave another one of his inspirational talk about ‘life not being a fucking rehearsal’, adding ‘Don't let anyone tell you how to live your life, how to fuck…. Stay angry!’
It seemed to be the idea of the night anyway, and as they were closing the set with Lyxzén declaring he wanted to take us all home, people were recovering like after the passage of a hurricane, trying to find lost wallets, shoes and broken glasses in the ruins left on the ground.
Setlist
Intro
Worms of the Senses
Party Program
Liberation Frequency
Rather Be dead
Coup d’Etat
Summerholiday Vs. Punkroutine
The Deadly Rhythm
Refused Are Fuckin Dead
The Shape of Punk to Come
New Noise
Tannhäuser