A few months ago they announced they would be doing a couple of shows including Coachella and back to back dates in N.Y.C. I immediately started making plans to travel to the New York show and turn this reunion into a celebration. Part of this venture included being part of my first four way. That's right, me and three friends had a four way call as we clicked refresh on the Interweb trying to get tickets to one of the N.Y.C. shows. We eventually got what we needed (after about a hour and a half) and we promptly booked flights and hotel rooms to go on a vacation. I have spent every minute since that day looking forward to this trip. Refused in N.Y.C. with my man, my two oldest friends and a nice assortment of Detroiters who are also making the pilgrimage! Good times right?!?
The only thing that would make this show better would be for it to be in Detroit....but that is just a dream right...
Flash forward to Wednesday morning when I got one of the first sets of pre-sale tickets to the show, announced only two days ago. Refused with Off at The Royal Oak Music Theatre, July 25, 2012.. I am so excited for this reunion, for this tour, for these shows, and for punk rock in general. REFUSED has always been one of Christie’s favorite bands. She even followed the members onto their future projects and she vowed that no matter where they played, she was going to go! She definitely got the rest of us on board and planning for N.Y.C. The best part is, HipInDetroit.com will be bringing you all the coverage we can from the NYC show to get you pumped for the DETROIT show. It's like a little gift from us, we will take you on vacation with us!
If I have not convinced you that this show is worth the $30 they are charging to get in the door , I implore you to read this statement released by the band. When I read it, I got goosebumps.
"We had a band once, in Umeå. 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.
//Refused"
Can't wait! Tickets are available through pre-sale now on ROMT's site or on Artist Arena. Tickets will be available officially on Friday at Noon!
~S
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