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Taken from playgroundboston.com. Written by: Kevin Sirois“Why am I, still in Massachusetts/ State that I love and I haaaate, -ate! –ate! –ate! –ate!” While listening to the chorus to Refuse Resist’s “Still In Massachusetts,” I imagined myself at one of their shows—a gritty concert hall or bar, most likely last song, last call—jabbing one clenched fist in the air while holding a pint with the other, shouting each lyric in unison with my inebriated brethren in the audience until I can’t shout any longer.After listening to Refuse Resist’s debut slab of hardcore punk, simply put, I need to see this band live.Mind: Yourself packs 13 songs of fast and heavy hardcore, and in true punk fashion, seven tracks clock in at just under two minutes. After all, if you need a six-minute epic to get your point across, you probably aren’t a punk band. And for the uninitiated, Refuse Resist play the type of hardcore that rose to prominence in the early 1980’s thanks to the Greg Ginns and Ian MacKayes of the world (see: Black Flag, Fugazi, Minor Threat) not the type that relies on chug-chug breakdowns and usually draws those annoying karate kid wannabes in the pit. Photo by Nicole Tammaro
Now that we got that out of the way, let me say that Shawn, the band’s singer, sounds like he gargles whiskey and broken glass rather than Scope, and his gravelly shout seems to come through the speakers and bash you in the head on songs like “Stop Them Now.”“ All the people who hate this war/ Have you forgotten what you’re fighting for?/ Support your troops that are over there/ Stop the tyrants over here/ Stop. Them. Now!”Besides touching on Bush-era politics (the album was released on Rodent Popsicle last year), the band urges computer couch potatoes to get off their asses and experience the real world on “Unplugged,” bitchsmacks pink-mohawked posers while declaring “punk is not a fashion show” on “Fashion Show,” and serves up another drinking anthem to get the weekend started with “Captain”—Morgan, of course.There’s all the staples of a solid hardcore record here: gang vocals galore, powerful, straight-forward tracks like “Refuse Resist,” and “Don’t Get In My Way,” rapid punk drum fills and some furious guitar strumming with some tasteful solos to boot—by way of John on drums, Brendan on bass and Mike on guitar, respectively. It’s refreshing to see that bands like Refuse Resist are keeping Boston’s rich history of hardcore punk alive and well. The guys will be tearing it up live in a matinee show tomorrow, August 22nd, at the Middle East Upstairs with cohorts The Midnight Creeps, Red Invasion, Suburban Showdown and The Sentence. Hurry up and catch them then, because after that they’ll be in the studio working on their follow-up Socialized, slated to drop on Thorp Records early next year. Doors at 1 p.m.!
4:04 PM
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