The average music nerd will have spent many years singing the praises of Refused. Their music is something of an oxymoron as they blend hardcore punk with progressive rock to create something wholly unique that established The Shape Of Punk To Come as a powerhouse record that changed the world of punk forever. This will be Refused’s last world tour, but their influence will be felt forever. This is an account of their final time in Manchester with Shooting Daggers and Quicksand acting as support.
Shooting Daggers were first. They took a minute to properly connect with the audience as the early parts of their set were a bit stiff and awkward. Once the band got into a groove, they created a phenomenal set of punishing ragers brimming with anger towards an unfair world and the wisdom to know they stand on the right side of history.
Shooting Daggers dealt with so many heavy subjects including rape culture, safe spaces and Palestine. Naturally, you’d struggle to find anyone at this show who disagreed with any of it. “Keep the strength, keep the rage” said one member as they ripped through brilliant tracks like ‘Tunnel Vision’ and ‘Missandra’.
This may be some people’s first experience with queercore as a genre. It’s a genre that’s built on existing authentically while having the strength to acknowledge that change is needed inside of a scene inside of a scene. The LGBTQ+ may be a smaller demographic than punk as a whole, but Shooting Daggers helps prove that it’s just as loud.
Next up was Quicksand, who did a solid job getting the crowd moving despite having a much more laid-back sound. Quicksand might not have been the heaviest or most energetic band on the bill, but they provided a rest period for those with aching knees.
Quicksand are something of a cult favourite band; their debut album, Slip, features a wealth of post-hardcore/shoegaze adjacent tracks that filled the thirst for long noisy segments and effects pedal-driven guitar solos. The band also features an all-star lineup of music nerd heroes, including Sergio Vega, formerly of Deftones, and Wayne Schreifels of Gorilla Biscuits.
It’s a highly 90s alternative-inspired set, so if you’re a fan of the likes of Sonic Youth and Alice in Chains, then Quicksand is a band for you. The set did get a little bit repetitive, but there’s still plenty of moments of weird and wacky post hardcore-driven noise to maintain the attention of the average punk and definitely enough going on to appease the discerning music nerd. Feel free to send death threats for getting the genres wrong.
Finally, Refused made their way to the stage with green lighting filling the stage as they got straight into ‘Poetry Written In Gasoline’ and delivered one of the most abrasive and aggressive performances that Victoria Warehouse has seen in recent memory. The entire show was brimming with righteous indignation, political outrage, all while celebrating the life of a band that has reached the end of its lifespan (again).
Frontman Dennis Lyxzen spent the entire set racing around the stage and doing crazy tricks with his microphone, all while mustering up hellish vocals on tracks like ‘Rather Be Dead‘. The whole band was airtight, but the camp and energetic theatrics of Dennis Lyxzen pushed them to a whole new level of hardcore excellence and helped them stand out amongst a genre that is known for wild flailing and blind aggression.
Naturally, the set was largely made up of the loquaciously titled The Shape of Punk To Come: A Chimerical Bombination In 12 Bursts, but there was still plenty of representation of the band’s early hardcore days. Tracks like ‘Everlasting’ and the rarely played ‘Beauty’ bordered on thrash metal and started circle pits, an impressive feat considering the average age of people in the audience.
The crowd was split between the young and passionate and the old and experienced, the way it should be in the punk scene. There’s the exact right amount of fire in the audience, and you can tell all that fire is going to end up in the right place as Dennis urges the audience to use their platforms and continue the age-old punk spirit of improving the world however it can.
The final stretch of the show saw some of the most iconic moments in hardcore punk history. The anxiety-inducing buildup of ‘New Noise’ saw an apocalyptic moshpit along with some of the most powerful drumming from David Sandstrom. This flowed into ‘Tannhauser,’ a shoegaze-style track that made use of a much more graceful dance style from vocalist Dennis Lyxzén. The way he moved throughout this song was reminiscent of a figure skater and gave life to some of the most striking moments of the entire show.
“Just imagine what we could have become if we didn’t become a super pretentious prog hardcore band,” said Dennis, reflecting on the history of Refused, a valid question but one we’ll never get an answer to… at least we had all this weirdness. The show ended with ‘Elektra,’ and with that, we can finally say with almost 100% certainty: Refused are fucking dead. Maybe they’ll be again some day in the future, but until then, we’ll continue to pay our respects and forever thank them for their contributions to shaping punk as we continue to dance to all the wrong songs.
