Making Their Only Midwest Stop, Refused Step Things Up From Fireside Bowl Days And Say Goodbye In Style At The Salt Shed

Mar 27, 2025 admin_bitlc Features, Music News, Reviews 0

By Cesar Glanville

The embers of a once tower of hot blue fire burned for one last time in Chicago at the (somewhat) new Salt Shed on the near Northside.

Touring on what is called “Refused Are F**king Dead (and This Time They Really Mean It) North America 2025 “ would make us assume this is it, it’s over, it’s done ….good luck and goodbye. Which usually means we’ll see you at Riot Fest in about 3 years! We’ll see if the socialist/anarchist’s aren’t out a cash grab, though the ticket prices may tell us otherwise. Anyway, let’s get to the show.

You may not be able to tell with the grumpy nodding above, but Refused is one of my absolute favorite bands …that I got into after they broke up. I didn’t get to see them until the reunion tour at the Congress Theatre, and it was an absolute energy explosion – start to finish one of the best shows I had ever seen. We all age, have health issues (Singer Dennis Lyxzén recently had a heart attack) and can’t be the 20 year old kids that blew out the Fireside Bowl in the mid 90’s. Refused were born on anger, played with rage, and raised the fist always. This version was a bit more Elvis in the Vegas years… a bit more showman than fist fierce.

Now with that said it doesn’t mean the show wasn’t entertaining and the band wasn’t tight, they were. Blasting on stage with the retrograde grinder ‘Poetry Written In Gasoline’ the band owned the Shed and Dennis had them in the palm of his hands. I thought this venue may be a bit big for them, though I always hear about how 2 generations that got into music found them and realized their brilliance. You could see that in the crowd, it wasn’t all Gen X’ers… it definitely had Millennials and some Gen Z’ers there, and that’s a testament to quality songs, period. Also, this was the only Midwest show… so we certainly had some travelers in the crowd.

Speaking of the crowd, the energy back to the stage was solid – not as much crowd movement as a Fireside Bowl show, but there certainly were pit explosions for songs like “Rather Be Dead”, “Circle Pit”, “New Noise” and “Coup D’Etat”. Dennis was having a good time, as evidenced by his constant smile, he joked about wearing nice clothes and really seemed to take in the ‘final’ Chicago show. One note about the guitar tone, it had more International Noise Conspiracy twang to it than some of the more brutal tones of past years, perhaps Kristofer Steen was bringing some of that punch ?

Last note: the venue was incredible. They really thought through the layout of this place; the sightlines are great, cool VIP areas, some actual seats … although they could crank the volume a bit more, I mean you want to hear punk rock LOUD, but nice room and friendly staff. SO proper send off for Refused, goodbye or see you at Riot Fest in 2028!

Editor’s note: Refused played one song, “Hate Breeds Hate” for the first time in 30 years. They also played a small tribute to someone who just played the same stage the night before, as they played “Loose” by Iggy Pop’s Stooges. Doing these expanded their punk roots and heritage even greater to wrap up an almost 4 decade career.