The legendary opening line to Refused's incendiary 1998 final album "Shape of Punk To Come" reinforces that punk music has always been music for the moment. However, the music and the musicians who emerge from these scenes, be it London in 1976 or DC in 1982 or Seattle in 1991, have far longer shelf lives than even their mainstream contemporaries. A perfect example of this took place Thursday night at the Congress Theater when legendary Swedish punks Refused made quite the return to Chicago 16 years after their last appearance. Joining the Swedes on this well deserved victory-lap was hardcore pioneer Keith Morris' latest project OFF!. It was fairly apparent that both bands had deep respect for each other (Refused drummer David Sandstrom had an OFF! sticker on his bass drum). The pairing of these two bands made for a powerful concert that, despite the sauna-like temps in the Congress, made for a show that none of the 3,500 fans there will forget anytime soon.
Despite being closer to Del Webb age than one who should be living the punk lifestyle in the van, former Black Flag and Circle Jerks lead singer Keith Morris is still very much the living embodiment of all things punk. A couple of years ago after a fruitless Circle Jerks recording session, Keith recruited a couple of his compadres from the SoCal punk including Redd Kross' Steven McDonald and formed a "super-group" called OFF! Their two releases so far 2010's "The First 4 EP's" and this year's "OFF!" are short blasts of classic hardcore that, while evoking memories of early 1980's Orange County hardcore, sound very fresh, vital and really pissed off. No song on either album goes longer than two minutes but you never feel like they left ideas on the table.
After some quick pleasantries and introductions from Keith, it was off to the races. Screaming out of the blocks with "Panic Attack" from "The First 4 EP's", it was apparent that OFF! was going to show no mercy playing 20 plus songs in their 30 minute set. Keith's voice is still as loud and angry as it was back on the first Black Flag singles back in 1977. Guitarist Dimitri Coats resembled a modern-day Johnny Ramone in both stage presence and playing style making the absolute most out of those three chords. The rhythm section of McDonald and drummer Mario Rubalcaba did the only thing they could, whip it into an old-school hardcore frenzy. The great thing about this set was that despite the bands formidable collective history, this was about this band at this moment, everything else didn't matter. When someone from the crowd asked them to play the Circle Jerks' version of "Wild in the Streets, Morris' simply replied that this band doesn't play that song. After 30 very intense minutes, OFF! walked off and left us asking how Refused was going to top this.
While OFF! and their hardcore predecessors were about following the loud, fast rules, Sweden's Refused took a far different approach to punk. While sharing similar ideologies to their brothers in arms, Refused took a more experimental, almost Bohemian approach towards punk. The energy and the anger was there but the music was far more nuanced, using techno, jazz, or even spoken word segments to raise to tension to unprecedented levels. Their legendary 1998 swan song album "Shape of Punk to Come" was culmination of this process ("New Noise" is one of the greatest songs ever - look it up on YouTube). The problem was, that what Refused doing was at least 5 years ahead of it's time and the band broke up soon afterwards with only a cult following. Case in point, their last performance in Chicago was for a very small crowd a few blocks away from the Congress at the Fireside Bowl. Fortunately post break-up, Refused served as the influence for hundreds of emo and screamo bands in the years ahead and that recognition that escaped them back in the 90's came ten-fold in the following decade plus. When the news came out earlier
After a very short break, the house lights went off, the opening drone music began playing and the tension among the crowd rose to fever pitch. After a couple of minutes, the black curtain in front of the stage, Refused exploded right into the opening track from "Shape of Punk to Come" "Worms of the Senses". Any concerns about being one-upped by their opening act were erased sheer power of the band. The start - stop breaks present throughout their songs helped whip the crowd into a bigger frenzy. Lead singer Dennis Lyzxen was bundle of energy throughout, jumping around, standing on the monitors, and at one point on the set, walking out over the audience. Unlike other reunions where the band the band members operate like separate operating entities, the boys in Refused were totally into the set not only enjoying playing these songs after many years but also playing with each other.
As mentioned before, it was apparent throughout both sets that the the two bands shared quite the admiration for the others. About 3/4 of the way through Refused's set, Lyznen remarked about how cool it was to have been covering old school Black Flag and Circle Jerk songs as a teenager and then to have the chance to tour with Keith Morris all these years later. Soon afterwards, Morris joined the band to cover two tracks from the very first Black Flag EP, "Police Story" and "Nervous Breakdows. While it was apparent that some of the younger folks in the crowd were not as familiar with these tracks the rest of of us were completely blown away.
After a 10 plus main set that focused primarily on "Shape of Punk to Come" with a couple of tracks from their second album "Songs to Fan the Flame of Discontent" (Rather Be Dead was another highlight), the band finished off the main set with a searing version of the title track. After a quick minute break, the band came back on stage with a short artsy jam and then after a brief pause, the single riff/ringing symbol intro to "New Noise". As with most Refused songs, the quick techno end to the intro brought the tension to fever pitch and then................CAN I SCREAM, YEAH!!!! The mosh pit that was 20 feet away from me was suddenly right in front of me. The crowd sang every verse with the band and people appeared to be flying across the crowd left and right. Refused's trademark song not only stood the test of time but took on new life in Logan Qquare. After Noise, the show came to a close with the far more subdued Tannhauser/Derrive.
Despite the fact that both bands played under 2 hours combined, Refused and OFF! were a perfect combination of punk past, present, and future. Don't think many of the 3,500 people in the crowd will forget this show anytime soon.
Here are a couple tracks from the participants for your listening pleasure
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