6. RefusedThe Shape of Punk to Come
I didn’t come into that record until about two years after it was made – I think I was about 34 and my wife and I were having kids and I was going back to school. In the late nineties rock music was kind of awful and you really had to search, there were a few bands out there doing different stuff but it was kind of an awful time for rock music, so I think I chose the right time to go back to school and have kids. Anyway, it took me two years but someone finally switched me onto the record and it blew my mind. Then I found out the band had split up – I went to see The (International) Noise conspiracy but it wasn’t Refused, so I thought really I missed my chance to see that band ever. But I finally got to see the band a few weeks ago in Seattle. There are gigs you go to on your own, ‘cos it’s not a social event, you don’t want to talk to anybody you just want to go and do your thing and it was really one of those moments where the gig was better than the record. That gig fortified everything I love about that record, that’s probably a top five record for me. Actually that record influenced a lot of the first Velvet Revolver record, we would listen to that band a ton.
