After the band split up in 1998, seeing Refused live in Australia was something that a lot of people thought they would never get to do.
Finishing their debut Australian tour last Saturday in Adelaide however, there was no backslapping or nostalgia, and the band finally delivered their homage to their seminal album The Shape Of Punk To Come and a significant, selfless post-script for their fans.
Local punks Hightime came on at 8pm to a reasonably sized crowd, with a legion of fans in the first few rows that were thoroughly enjoying themselves.
Whilst her band looked utterly at ease, it seemed that lead singer Nina was a bit overwhelmed with the space she was granted on the large Thebarton stage.
If nothing else though, she was charmingly affable, exchanging banter with her hometown crowd and winning over anyone who wasn’t already enamored with a faithful cover of The Clash’s “The Guns Of Brixton”.
They played a fittingingly high-energy set that demonstrated their respect for the headliners and no doubt won over a few new fans.
With the house lights down and a big curtain spelling out R-E-F-U-S-E-D covering the stage, loud droning guitars that seemed to go on for an eternity had anticipation at boiling point.
Indeed, when the curtain eventually fell just after 9pm, the Swedish punks burst into “The Shape Of Punk To Come” with a rapturous and righteous response from the crowd.
Within minutes, the band had people crowd surfing, spilling drinks and throwing their shoes in the air. It was an anxious, rowdy, and intense start.
With sparse yet bright white flood lights and a tasteful fog surrounding the stage, the band looked the image of class, despite the fact they were playing with all the pent-up energy and anger the crowd had anticipated.
Never shying away from addressing the masses, it wasn’t long before frontman Dennis Lyxzén discussed their reunion, mentioning how he was happy to be ending the band’s tour in a smaller city, and discussing their continued relevancy fourteen years from their last album.
The emphasis was on the music though, and indeed the crowd fervently sang along with anthems such as “Liberation Frequency” and “Rather Be Dead”, reciprocating the passion with which the band were playing.
To their credit the quartet was able to sustain these ecstatic scenes across their whole set, with “Coup D’Etat”, “Protest Song ’68” and “Refused Are Fucking Dead” all getting the reactions they deserved.
After what seemed like no time at all, the band closed their main set with “Worms Of The Senses / Faculties Of The Skull”. Coming back on with “Tannhäuser / Derivè”, Lyxzén being shirtless seemed like a logical foregone conclusion given the amount of sweat he produced during their main set.
Delivering a supremely tight and professional set and playing as if they’d never broken up, the band finally delivered to their fans the tour that their last album deserved – the ideal reunion.
Check out the gallery of Refused at Adelaide’s Thebarton Theatre here.
