Refused are back
Well, for a couple of shows at least…
“Hate to say we told you so” 😉 Back in November, we already told you about Refused playing Coachella. But now it’s officially confirmed.
Aside from playing Coachella in the USA, they’re also playing the Way Out West Festival in Sweden.
Rumours (a deleted tweet from an other band playing and stuff like that) about Groezrock are circulating, but nothing has been confirmed so far.
Update: Groezrock now officially confirmed too. As is the Monster Bash Festival in Germany.
The band has posted the following on their website:
Back to news overviewWe had a band once, in UmeÃ¥. We would pile in a van, like every other punkband, and thunder off in pursuit of friends and glory in some basement in front of 20 people, 50 people, in towns 4-5 hours away. Sometimes there would be more than a hundred people and we would later in the week refer to that as a “big show”. We were ambitious, but we didn’t think of it as a career. We never made any fiscal sense whatsoever during 7 years of touring. Like most punkbands, it never occured to us to even try. We had a scene, we had some politics and we had just a hint of artistic ambition. True to our swedish roots we got very serious very fast. And then suddenly we got good. It’s a delicate path to tread for precocious twentysomethings anywhere on the planet, but this particular bunch didn’t make it. And that was fine. Most enterprises in life are unrelated to incredibly violent rock music.
It’s been a motley 14 years since our band came apart. We’ve all kept busy in our respective endeavors but we’ve all remained friends and kept in touch. There have been offers, and lots of jokes about these offers. We’ve sort of looked down from our high horses and made fun of people who’ve just wanted to share the psychopathic intensity that we would deliver on a nightly basis in our post-pubescent prime. A reunion has just seemed irrelevant to us. Too much other shit to do.
But then Kristofer got his degree from the Swedish opera academy, Jons medical studies began drawing to a close and Dennis and David started a new hardcore band together. Finally, after a decade and a half hiatus, Kristofer picked up the guitar again. Which made David want to play the drums again. Which in turn led to all four of us suddenly making new music in assorted constellations. As all this was brewing, Coachella got in touch. There were a couple of phone-calls, lots of skepticism, some hesitant enthusiasm before one of us basically said: “– This is ridiculous. There are friends of ours who would murder close relatives just to go see bands there. Let’s just do it, one last time.” And with that, socialist fag-loving pc scumbags were on the road again.
We never did “The shape of punk to come” justice back when it came out, too tangled up in petty internal bickering to really focus on the job. And suddenly there’s this possibility to do it like it was intended. We wanna do it over, do it right. For the people who’ve kept the music alive through the years, but also for our own sakes.
We feel that you deserve it and we hope the feeling is mutual.See you in the pit.
Would make for a decent headliner next to Rancid.
I urge you all to read what SWEHC.COM has to say about this: http://www.swehc.com/2012/01/10/thoughts-on-the-refused-thing/
Facebook post Dennis:
“Wow, a crazy morning.
For all you Swedes and other non-Americans; we will post more dates soon. Even though it would be great to have everyone over at Coachella for the first show you can save your hard earned cash and hopefully see us somewhere closer to home!”
http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=277318385661359&id=139772912749241
Jippie ah yeah!
@Rold: what a ‘whiny old people’ post on SWEHC.COM… I’d rather see Refused on a large festival stage than NOT see Refused play!
I guess they’re playing Groezrock: http://www.groezrock.be
greatest news of the year!
Haha, thanks for that comment Onno. I always get called a Hype Kid and told that I love everything. Nice with being the old grumpy guy for a change, even though I hardly think you could have read the whole text, or for that matter caught all the celebratory references in it.
Hi Staffan, love the cynicism in your comment, but I actually did read the whole text. I think it might be the whiny first part that set the tone for me reading the rest and not appreciating the ‘celebratory references in it’. It’s just that I’m getting bored with the ‘we cannot like anything without complaining about it first’ mentality that internet seems to have given us (or maybe life in general is to blame for that).
Well, it’s funny that you’d suggest a little shallow features in the text, when it’s actually the only one I’ve seen (please direct me to any I might have missed) that has attempted to put it into historical, scene-political AND personal frameworks. Complaining on everything is obviously no use, neither is claiming that everything is always great and that anyone trying to lift a few stones and see things from different perspectives is a whining old person. I am not saying that so much because I wrote the text – believe me, I DID find the comment funny in a good way since I often get shit for “liking everything”, that wasn’t pure sarcasm – but I do think that this whole Refused thing should be put into perspective. If the only thing is either “I will pay 150 euros to see it” or “fuck those sellouts”, then there’s not a whole lot of constructive discussion going on. That said, for my own sake as the author of the text, I would also hate it if people would think that what your comment suggested (a shallow and whining attitude) was true, as it just isn’t.
Sorry Onno I got to go with Staffan here. I think his article puts the Refused reunion in the right context if you think about the medium he uses which is SWEHC.COM. I guess other sites would put the news in another context.
Speaking for myself I hope the band will also do some Songs To Fan The Flame Of Discontent and go out with a Final Exit medley.
The only reunion I will probably see at Groezrock will be five minutes of Lifetime and then it’s back to the merch tent to work my ass of for Reflections 😉
This reunion means i have to scrape some cash together to buy a ticket early, since the fest will probably sell out quickly now. First time groezrock ever for me. Don’t ask me why.
Well excuse me that I did not study the text and re-read it a couple of times. I did read the whole text once and it felt ‘whiny’ to me, but that might be my first impression and not your goal. Now on to the next reunion!