Live Review: Refused, Sick Of It All, High Tension

If you're having a convo and High Tension start playing, it's like, "Did you eat some dinner?" 

"Yeah I had some dumpli..." BOOOOOOM! Enter eardrum assault (of the finest order). It's all about Karina Utomo. She calls her tourmates "mad dogs" and makes the photography pit her own, stalking back and forth like a caged lioness before leaping up onto the barrier for a closer look at her prey. Utomo then jumps into the audience to scream in the faces of punters and the chosen ones smile with glee; Utomo so close that they feel her breath. Such dense, brutal riffs! Drummer Lauren Hammel is an absolute beast of demolition. They're over before 8pm. What!? Utomo finishes in the crowd and then stays there to mingle with punters for a bit.   

A dude runs down the front only to discover (from Utomo herself) that High Tension's set is over. He turns to the photography barrier, uses it as a punching bag and splits his knuckles open. Our eavesdropping reveals he can't make the show tomorrow night (Utomo offered to put him on the doorlist) since he's flying back out in the morning. Selfies are exchanged, making a feature of the fan's bloody knuckles thanks to backhanded hand-horns.

Plots of prime audience real estate are guarded by this stage. As one lass navigates through for a closer posi, her mate explains, "This is her first pub gig," before the subject of this dialogue replies, horrified: "Don't tell anyone!"

Sick Of It All take a second to get the levels sorted. Mid-song, lead singer Lou Koller instructs for bassist Craig Setari's vocals to be turned down, twice, while Setari's not looking. Sick Of It All's guitarist — Koller's brother, Pete — has enviable elevation and you'd swear the stage was sprung seeing him flying so high that he narrowly avoids head butting the ceiling. With peroxided Mohawk and low-slung bandanna that threatens to blindfold him, the guitarist often pulls focus with his impressive tricks. Take The Night Off is all middle fingers in the air: "Let's celebrate that we don't give a fuck!" Lou expresses disappointment, saying we're not the "rowdy Australians" he expected. "What'd you do? Grow beards instead?" He teases. Setari perfectly delivers his vocal parts then looks clammy and a little unwell — lucky Sick Of It All are only on support duty this evening! Armand Majidi on drums? Killer for the set's entirety. The band are clearly loving it up there.

The frontman explains Sick Of It All have reached the tail end of their 30th anniversary tour, which goes some way toward explaining why we can't work out whether he's on unclean or just downright filthy vocals right now. This band play at an 'I'll have to tell ya later' volume as well. Hearing Koller holler, "All my life people tell me what to say!" 30 years into the band's career reflects mid-life crisis. We're promised they're about to go heavy; "The getting stoned in your bedroom to Black Sabbath kinda heavy," according to Koller. Utomo and Hammel run on for a stage-dive and crowd-surf during Sick Of It All's closer.

9.40pm: Throbbing drone. An artistic statement to set the sonic scene. More throbbing drone. Finally, Refused arrive on stage and we immediately wonder, 'Who came first, Refused or The Hives?' (Answer: The Hives.) Not to take anything away from these fellow dapper Swedes, though; Refused are exceptional. There's already rowdy crowd-surfing during song two. It's weird to be impressed by the dress sense of a hardcore punk act, but Refused look exquisite in their tailored threads and bloody good on 'em, too! Who says you have to dress casually to play this kinda music? Refused are so telegenic they deserve their own HBO series.

Vocalist Dennis Lyxzen has a lot to say about the plight of our planet tonight, which obviously gives Trump more airtime. Rather Be Dead features impossibly fast drumming and rhythmic riffs. We wanna set up a mic-trick battle between Lyxzen and Howlin' Pelle Almqvist to showcase the pair's flawless mic-handling techniques. Lyxzen moves with every instrumental nuance and somehow even spirit fingers don't look lame when attached to his arms; his finger snaps also look badass.

Coup d'Etat perfectly incorporates snatches of silence within the complex arrangements and it's hard to believe this band have broken up and re-formed since they play as if they've been an unbroken unit since inception. Songs stop on a dime. They actually sound perfect. Lyxzen is completely drenched by this stage, but doesn't remove his suit jacket until towards the very end of the set. He swings the mic on its lead, throws it in the air and we hear a loud "thwock" as it connects with the venue's ceiling. Refused strip it back, a siren enters the sonic spectrum and we wonder whether we're in danger of OD-ing on enjoyment. 

After returning to the stage for an encore, Lyxzen asks who among us is returning for a repeat dose before teasing, "I wonder what else we're gonna play tomorrow?" The frontman confesses his band always wanted to sound like Sick Of It All. "You wanna hear another song? Honestly I've got more shit to say..." And off Lyxzen goes again. "Guys, we all need to get our shit together," he rallies against misogyny, adding that men need to stop thinking they're better "because [they] have a dick". 

Refused are the sartorial Jedi of hardcore, which they totally reinvent and own.