Attentat at Debaser Slussen - I click on the "Like" button (live review)

Ther will be pictures later, please stay tuned.

The Crowd

Some smart ass booked Attentat the same night as Sweden played an important qualifying match for the next Football (Soccer) World Championship. Or maybe did they know what they were doing. The Club Debaser Slussen had to have open anyway and I can´t think of many bands that could attract such crowd under the same circumstances, than Attentat. Let´s say it was almost half full and it was decent from a Gothenburg band that tries to convince Stockholm about their greatness. On the good side, there wasn´t any trendies or hipsters around because of the hype, this was real to the bone punk fans, and even to the core Attentat fans. The young with studded jackets, skins and mohawks, in front jumping around, in the back the beer bellies chanting in every chorus of the old songs like they hasn´t done anything else the last decades than practice on chanting that they don´t want a new Opera house, that “you” should leave them fucking alone and they are birds without legs. Surprising to see so many young and old skinheads find their way to Attentat, I click on the “Like” button.

The Place

Debaser Slussen´s days seem numbered because of the rebuilding of the whole area, and I won´t feel sorry about it. I don´t like the way they have lit up the stage or the club in general. Tonight the bar service is great and that makes it OK.

The Bands

The Nature

It is a horrible booking to let The Nature up on stage as a support act to Attentat. It doesn´t give the band The Nature the chance they deserve and the crowd (me) the right mood. The Natures trashy indie pop should be fine any other night, but now I can´t relate to them as anything else that something that should end as fast as it is possible. Too bad, another night I might liked them, but not last night.

Attentat

Attentat was a most important *band in the Swedish punk flora, starting out as a hard 77 type of band in 1978, they transformed to a mainstream rock punk band that attracted attention from national broadcasted media in the early 1980ies, to be back at small pub gigs at Tre Backar in the end of the decade. The ever young teenager (at least in his lyrics) singer Mats Jönsson seems to know how to speak to young and frustrated generations in his lyrics.

I can´t think of any other punk band that can play a ballad of fear and shortcomings and get some stone faced skinheads, mohawk punks and beer bellied drunks to sing along in it, all together. Attentat get such a thing going, very natural. Maybe because they are very honest about NOT having any Macho issues shown in songs like “Manskomplex”, a song from a never released demo* in 1981 but still a big crowd pleaser. It is a lot of Woahhh waouhh aeaeaeahh in their chorus that makes it easy to sing along with. But it doesn´t come for free to the band. As I pointed out many times, the Stockholm crowd is a rather stiff crowd, Attentat seems to take that as a challenge, and with their bond to the crowd and routine they manage to get the crowd going and it looks like that most people have a jolly good time. I know I got it.
But it isn´t all trouble free, there is one annoying thing with the band onstage, too many new songs. The new songs isn´t played with the same obvious Attentatness as the old tunes.  The new album “Fy fan” is a complex album and all of the songs doesn´t manage to compete with their old classics at such a night as this. Not that they are bad songs but there is better song from their old days that are better. On the other hand, I fully understand them, they are here to convince us that they have a future as a vital band full of new ideas and strength more than a punk revival act to cash in on old glory.  “Fattiga och rika” and “Dö som en hund” make their way to my heart. “Gilla mig” doesn´t have the same strength, but seems like it is very much an open gateway to Mats Jönssons frustrated heart. He introduce it as song about a pathetic phenomena, to spend our days going for the most “Like” clicks on Facebook. Mocking himself, the bass player Crippa (I often “Like” click his posts, haha) and us in the audience. It is funny and thoughtful but I rather seen them played some of their old classics like “Hej Gamle man”, “Hårding” or else of their song treasures.


And so...

Worth the money? 100SKr Yes! Just to see the Bass player “Crippa” do the 1,2,3,4 count, in Stockholm dialect (this time only, he claimed) was worth the price of a beer.

* I travelled miles to see Attentat as one of my first live punk shows in the early 80ies, collected their early singles with a certain eager as many others did.

**  Now you can find it on compilation albums.