After this, I’ll stop speaking of this past weekend, as I’ve blown up social sites enough as is.

In 1998, a young Swedish hardcore band wrote and released their 3rd album, The Shape of Punk to Come. The album broke away from the typical sound of their genre and would become a classic and one of the most genre-changing albums of the time. Shortly after, they came to play a dismal US tour of basements, bars, and holes in the wall to crowds of less than 50 people per night. After playing a few songs in a basement in Harrisonburg, VA, police came in and shut down the show, and the band decided to call it quits. They canceled the remainder of their tour, packed their gear and flew home, devastated.

The band went on to form new bands, such as International Noise Conspiracy, and The Shape of Punk to Come was left to steep. Years later, in 2004, the band’s albums were picked up by Epitaph records for re-release and distribution. The Shape of Punk to Come continued to remain a classic, and finally had proper worldwide distribution. In 2010, a documentary DVD called “Refused Are Fucking Dead” was released, detailing the final days of the band’s existence and their decision to call it quits.

I’ve been to hundreds of shows in my life all around the east coast. I’ve booked somewhere between 50-100 shows myself, from basements to sold out large venues. Over the years, I’ve grown bitter and dismayed by the music scene and the greed and arrogance exhibited by many bands and record labels. In 2007, I sold my record collection, withdrew from music almost completely, and refocused on life. I simply became jaded by what punk and hardcore has become.

Although I came into the venue on Sunday night expecting a fun as hell show, I also anticipated a level of arrogance that could only come from 13 years of post-breakup success. I thought that this show, and all the other reunion shows scheduled, were nothing more than a money-grab. However, I couldn’t have been more wrong. This was the most honest and humble show I’ve ever been to, and will easily take it’s place in my top 5 list of best shows I’ve ever seen.

The band lacked no energy, humility, or compassion. They seemed more excited to be there than the crowd was. They addressed their lyrics, which many would say they were selling out from, by explaining their current stance:

“We grew up in a small town in north of Sweden in the middle of fucking nowhere. We discovered punk rock music and we discovered that it was a way out of there. We started reading the lyrics and thought about the politics. We didn’t really move, we still live up there. But the politics and the ideas took us from where we were as people and brought us to where we are today.

One of the things about doing this whole reunion trip is that… The lyrics that we wrote 15, 16, 17 years ago, how are we going to stand behind that? And looking out at the world today and looking at the lyrics we wrote… They were naive and fucking dystopic, and fucking angry….. And they mean more today than they ever did.

Here’s a song about that. This is a song called Rather Be Dead.”

Since their original reunion announcement, Refused has added nearly 30 shows to their worldwide reunion line-up. In July, they will be doing an East Coast US tour, hitting many of the cities they were scheduled to play in 1999 before breaking up. I plan to catch them again a little closer to home, perhaps in Atlanta or Silver Spring, MD.

TL;DR: See this band while you can.

(photo via dannorton)