Quick review: INVSN (+ Against Me!)

A few weeks back, INVSN invited me to their show at Lido in support of Against Me!. Naturally, I complied.

In my Refused review I have elaborated on my relationship to and love for those Northern Swedes, so need to go into detail here again. INVSN is a multiple reincarnation of Dennis Lyxzén's (Refused, International Noise Conspiracy) original solo project The Lost Patrol Band -> Invasionen -> INVSN. Since 1999, the project has gone from singer-songerwriter melancholy to punky pop to Swedish indie to wavey rock'n'roll, the current sound. It's evidently an outlet for Mr. Lyxzén to showcase whatever he feels like and with whomever he feels like at a particular moment in time.

I have always enjoyed this project and its many forms but the current line-up and sound is by far the best yet. Not only that, it is also refreshingly current and well-written. The album is an absolute favourite of mine at the moment. However, this was not so until I saw them perform the songs live the other day. With six people on stage, a lot more raw rock'n'roll, and an extrovert frontman performance, this was one of the best live shows I have seen so far this year. I was thoroughly enjoying myself and so were the two teenagers I had with me that evening. Since then, INVSN is played on my record player rather frequently.

It goes to show that live music is still the way to discover music. The emotion it evokes can make you feel so much closer to the music and its performers. It's the way I discovered punk and hc, the way I discovered garage rock.

The best part of the evening was seeing my friends of course and seeing the very positive response they got from the Against Me! crowd, many of whom were turned to fans that night, no doubt.

If you want to know what the Against Me! gig was like, read my review from last time - though some band members have changed (incidentally, the former bass player of International Noise Conspiracy is now the bass player for Against Me!), the show was pretty much the same.

Quick review: Against Me!

I end up in a lot of odd places. Like, last night, I found myself in the neo-punkrock-crowd at the Against Me! gig in the smaller room at Postbahnhof. Having been pissed off at "that song" for years, I was curious what would await me. 

Our curiosity was heightened by the recent attention the band had gotten for the singer's outcoming as a transsexual and the subsequent change of gender. How was this going to be taken by the punk fan base? Was Laura going to move people the way Tom had done?

The quick answer, I am pleased to say, is yes. Not only was the show sold out but you rarely see such dedicated fans who will celebrate their group in such a way. It was very touching actually. I saw a few middle fingers rising during "Teenage Anarchist" (the song I get very passionately angry about) but, apart from that, there was a lot of dancing, singing along and smiles all around from the mixed-age audience. Wonderful to watch.

Against Me! were of course solid and played those songs to perfection, sufficiently rocking out on stage and giving the audience what they wanted and deserved for their undying support. A good gig, albeit not my kinda thing of course. I like neither the pop punk genre nor am I partial to neo-punkrockers in the 2000s dressing up like it was 1977. But everybody does their thing and they do it well, taking with them the unpretentious audience, while the band goes through several transformations, be it politically or personal. May they go on for a long while because, while I will never become a follower, the world needs these kinds of bands among the "fabric conditioner pop" the radio usually plays. I just hope that the next generation of teenagers will "get it", too.