Reunited Swedish punk greats Refused bring farewell tour to Warfield
One of the most explosive punk bands to emerge in Europe during the 1990s returns to the Bay Area when reunited Swedish group Refused brings its farewell tour with NYC greats Quicksand to the Warfield Thursday night.
Founded in 1991 by singer Dennis Lyxzén (best known for fronting straight-edge punk group Step Forward), drummer David Sandström and guitarist Pär Hansson, the band began forging a style of intense hardcore with its live performances and two demos filled with massive riffs and caustic, hard-driving songs. Second guitarist Henrik Jansson by the time the band recorded its 1994 debut This Just Might Be...The Truth, a collection of tracks that established Refused's bombastic style of punk. They quickly released the more metallic follow-up EP Everlasting, but soon the two guitarists would be replaced by new members Kristofer Steen and Jon Brännström.
The band's follow-up effort -- Songs To Fan The Flames Of Discontent in 1996 -- found Lyxzén and company shifting to a far more radical sound and political message. Drawing inspiration from the early 20th century organization the Industrial Workers of the World that had ties to both anarchist and socialist movements, the album presented revolutionary rhetoric on such pulverizing tunes as "Worthless Is the Freedom Bought" and "Coup D'etat"
The group built a rabid cult following on both sides of the Atlantic with their ferociously intense live shows. Their third album, The Shape of Punk to Come, would mark another quantum leap forward for Refused. Released in 1998, the recording introduced more experimental elements to the band's sound, incorporating electronic music and spoken word samples as well as quoting the music from artists as varied as Bo Diddly and Stravinsky in the new songs. The album's bold direction would initially be met with bewilderment by fans and critics, adding to simmering tensions between band members that culminated in their sudden break-up while touring the U.S. only months after The Shape of Punk to Come came out.
In the wake of the sudden split, the members of Refused started new projects with Lyxzén founding the (International) Noise Conspiracy and the rest of the band forming the new avant-garde ambient group TEXT. Despite the break-up, interest in Refused grew as The Shape of Punk to Come belatedly found an audience. The album would come to be hailed as one of the great punk albums of the decade as fans raised a growing call for the group to reunite. Early signs of a possible reconciliation came in 2007 when Lyxzén and Sandström reformed their earlier side project Final Exit, a year before the pair started the new hardcore band AC4.
After years of rumors, Refused finally granted fans wishes by reuniting for the Coachella Festival in 2012 and headlining numerous European festivals to a joyful reception. Though they initially insisted that the reunion was only for one year of performing and touring, after a short hiatus Refused returned to live activity and eventually recorded its first album of new material in almost 20 years with the release of the acclaimed 2015 effort Freedom that returned the band to a more straightforward punk sound and was met with universal acclaim.
For the group's 2019 effort War Music, Refused delivered an album that seems more of a spiritual successor to The Shape of Punk to Come than Freedom. Working with producer Martin Ehrencrona (who has helmed recordings by noted Swedish bands including gothic metal act Tribulation and punk outfit Viagra Boys), the collection was filled with Lyxzén's angry yet melodic screeds against capitalism and the 1%. War Music stands as another triumph and a perfect album of protest punk for uncertain times.
Refused embarked on a U.S. tour with Canadian noise-punk trio Metz in early 2020 that wrapped just prior to the COVID-19 shutdown. Late that year, the band released The Malignant Fire EP featuring four new frenetic blasts of their signature punk sound.
The band was set to play its first live set in four years last March in what they announced would be their last Swedish festival performance ever at Stockholm's Rosendal Garden Party, but were forced to cancel when Lyxzén suffered a massive heart attack. While the singer has recovered and is in good health, Refused are moving forward with what the band is calling its farewell tour that will celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Shape Of Punk To Come.
The "Refused Are F--king Dead Tour" coincides with limited edition reissue of their cornerstone recording with unreleased demos and rare alternate takes as well as the 12-song tribute album The Shape Of Punk To Come Obliterated featuring covers and remixes by bands like Quicksand, Zulu, Gel, IDLES, Touche Amore and others.
The farewell tour comes to San Francisco this Thursday at the Warfield featuring one of those bands in the opening slot. One of the most influential bands to emerge from the New York scene during the 1990s, reunited post-hardcore greats Quicksand have been dazzling fans with their mix of pulverizing riffs and ear-catching melodies for the better part of two decades.
Formed in 1990 by former Gorilla Biscuits and Youth of Today member Walter Schreifels (guitar/vocals), the quartet included other NYC hardcore vets ex-Beyond guitarist Tom Capone, drummer Alan Cage (also ex-Beyond and Burn) and bassist Sergio Vega (formerly of Collapse and Absolution). Crafting a tuneful style of concise, crushing music that echoed the intensity of Washington, D.C. band Fugazi and fellow New York City group Helmet, Quicksand wasted no time getting in the studio. Their eponymous four-song EP was recorded and released through independent punk label Revelation Records only six weeks after they came together.
The band hit the road, doggedly touring with a variety of like-minded contemporaries (the aforementioned Fugazi and Helmet, Rage Against the Machine as well as the more metallic NY standard bearers Anthrax and White Zombie) and eventually a deal with Polydor Records amid the early '90s alt-rock gold rush of band signings by major labels.
While it wasn't a huge commercial success when it was released in 1993, Slip would prove to be massively influential in the years to come between Schreifels' raging, angst-ridden vocals and the band's creative use of space and quiet/loud dynamics on such tunes as the ferocious album opener "Fazer," the brooding "Freezing Process" and "Dine Alone."
The band would return to touring with a vengeance, performing upwards of 250 shows to support the album and joining fellow upstarts the Offspring just as that group was starting to break out from the underground. By early 1995, Quicksand released its more accessible (yet still crushing) sophomore album Manic Compression, marking the band's first impact on the charts. But after five years of hectic recording and road work, the outfit would dissolve amid interpersonal conflict and fatigue.
While the members would immediately pursue other creative endeavors, Schreifels and company reunited for the first time in 1998, playing its first show back together in Osaka, Japan, prior to heading into the studio to record a third album. But after past tensions resurfaced, Quicksand went back on hiatus the following year. Much of the following decade was spent on other projects, most notably Schreifels' successful alt-rock band Rival Schools and Vega becoming a member of Sacramento rock giants Deftones after their bassist Chi Cheng suffered serious injuries in a 2008 car rash that left the musician in a coma (he tragically passed away five years later).
Quicksand would reunite again in 2012, appearing as the surprise guest at the Revelation Records 25th Anniversary in Pomona, performing a short five-song set. The original line-up would play additional shows before announcing the quartet's first tour in 15 years in January of 2013. More shows would follow, but the band was largely quiet, refusing to confirm rumors that the members were working on a new album. That silence was broken in the summer of 2017 with the announcement of a new North American tour that was later followed with confirmation that the group would issue its first new recordings in 22 year with their album Interiors on Epitaph Records.
Mixing the band's trademark hectic grooves with moments of melodic shoegazing drone, Quicksand's latest might not quite measure up to its first two seminal albums, but shows Schreifels and company making a logical progression from the angst and knotty time signatures of their early work.
A fall tour previewing the material prior to its release unfortunately found Copone being arrested for shoplifting in Phoenix after relapsing into drug and alcohol abuse, leading the band to continue as a three piece. A three-song EP of tunes that didn't make the album entitled Triptych Continuum was released the following year.
While the COVID pandemic shutdown of touring activity for all of 2020 and part of 2021 may have delayed its release, that summer Quicksand issued another stellar new effort with Distant Populations, also on Epitaph Records. Featuring another round of tuneful and often crushing post-punk anthems including lead single "Inversion" and the moody, synth-drum powered cut "Brushed," the album stands as another creative triumph.
A series of live videos Quicksand recorded at Vinegar Hill Studios that announced the band's new addition to their touring lineup: second guitarist Stephen Brodsky. Best known as a member of Cave In and Mutoid Man, Broadsky additionally played in New Idea Society with Quicksand drummer Cage. That tour proved that the new line-up was just as potent and powerful as the original version of the band.
In 2023, Quicksand announced the band was teaming with Boston-based imprint Iodine Recordings to release a 30th anniversary edition of Slip that would be remastered for vinyl using the original 1993 master tapes and includes the group's cover of the Smiths classic "How Soon is Now?" as a bonus track. The deluxe edition includes a 64-page hardcover book with photographs, images of concert posters, and comments from a variety of musicians on the scene including Broadsky, Scott Ian of Anthrax, Geoff Rickly of Thursday, Dennis Lyxzén of Refused and Tim McIlrath of Rise Against as well as a foreword written by Schreifels.
The group last visited San Francisco on its tour celebrating the anniversary of Slip two years ago, packing Bimbo's in North Beach. Though Quicksand has returned to a three-piece line-up on recent tours, the group continues to pack a visceral and emotional punch that should draw its fans into the Warfield in time to experience their opening set.
Refused with Quicksand
Thursday, March 27, 8 p.m. $35-$99.95
The Warfield
