Ligisterna and DERBY STHLM at Skål (Live Review)

The Place, The Club

Possible have Klubb Antisocial gone from being an obscure Oi! club, to become the best punk club in town. It is relaxed and just a cool place to be. The place Skål is located at the wrong side of Södermalm island far away from most of the punk clubs. “Knivsöder” (Knife Söder) the area is called in the local folklore due to its history of drug related stabbings. That is history now as the hipsters and the nouveau rich moving into the area. But that shouldn´t stop you from attend their gigs.
It is very social there. Last night it was a meltingpoint of three different part of the punk scene, The Antisocial regulars, Ligisterna and DERBY STHLMs entourage. It might sound weird but Ligisterna and DERBY STHLM have never seen each other play or even shared a stage, but now it happened. These two top bands on the same bill was a dream scenario and you just pay 60SEK to see them. Brilliant!

However the cellar club isn´t without its problems. The stage must be one of the Worlds smallest. The roof height I very low, especially on stage and the stage sound is pretty much the sound you as a crowd will hear as well. On the other side there will be an intimately atmosphere even if there are few in the audience. Last night it was packed, not entirely full but pretty close to it.

The Bands

Ligisterna

In the basement of Skål, Ligisterna was meeting a new audience that never heard them before, never heard of them before as well as people familiar with their stuff and I doubt they let anyone down. They were ready to rock even if the sound wasn´t optimal.  The mini stage didn´t alowe bass player Cabbe to jump along and move as much he is used to but otherwise nothing was different. the same energy as always. Despite some unbalance in the sound they did a convincing set but to my annoyence they did left out some of their better songs as “SAAB”, “Skitliv”, “Slav” etc. And many in the audience wanted to hear “Soptipp” as well. On the other side we got some new songs, just as good as the old. One a bit accurate today in the shadows of the Husby riots,” you just wanna dance I just  wanna destroy” was the chorus, but sung in Swedish of course. The singer Bojan aka Niklas wasn´t as funny in his comments between the songs as he used to be, but very focused to deliver a good set. And so were the whole gang onstage. But they have a way to communicate with the audience that is breaking down the borders between the rock band onstage and the crowd.

As an encore they did play a little trick on the audience. “En gång till” (One more time) did the crowd shout. And the band deliberately interpret that as the last song was the one to be played once again. So they did play the last played song as the encore. Haha, very funny.

DERBY STHLM

DERBY STHLM manage always to create chaos onstage during their sets. Often their instruments is broken in a way or two. Last night Uffe did go hard on the strings on multiple guitars and had to ask Ligisterna of support to lend him a guitar. Unfortionately Ligisterna just went upstairs to prepare their CD and Vinyl sales so he had to the last number with missing strings. Who cared? It was as good as it was anyway.

Before that the football crazy mad men delivered an entertaining set as always. They are a band that are growing in popularity and despite the chaos on stage, they always deliver a great set. Last night was no exception.  No sweat was spared. Before the gig on Facebook, DERBY STHLM, more or less told the crowd to become a big choir that would help them out. So when they opened up the stage during the Ebba Grön cover “Radion” not only Psykbryt did take the stage in possession as usual, some of the Ligisterna and others as well as I did grab the mics to shout along Lalalalala in the Ebba Gröns 1979 classic, “Radion”. Before that, the French singer Nico of Sans Sursis did his French version of Tredje könets* “Spindlar”, “Cyntia”. Unexpected and very punk good. During the set the microphones was handed out at the audience to use, like to break the borders between the band and the crowd, to blur the dividing line, just in the tradition of DERBY STHLM ideology. And they did create that old school punk feeling of belonging and be a part of something bigger.  Both Ligisterna and DERBY STHLM are always a sight to see, last night was no exception.

And so

Last night was a night when the angry working class ethos got heard onstage. With frustration delivered with a message in punk songs not as thrown bricks. Even if both bands made joke about they rather be out throwing bricks.
60SEK was cheap for such an entertaining night as it was.



*Leffe of DERBY STHLM played in Tredje Könet.