Asta Kask (first ever releasepaerty) with
Asta Kask and Alonzo Fas 3 onstage.
at Debaser Slussen, Stockholm
All good
summers are defined by a certain event or party in the beginning of it. You
know when all is right. Last night the sun decided to take a break and give
away for the rain. The rain took a break in time for us to show up at the
Debaser Slussen outdoor bar for a beer before the in advance sold out concert
with Asta Kask at their release party of their new album “Handen på hjärtat”,
with Alonzo Fas 3 as support. The weather didn´t look like it was this night
the summer parties started. But the band that played last night did have a word
in it, they made it happened. I spoke a few words with Micke Alonzo before the
gig and he seemed very relaxed. As the crowd started to gather up for entering
the concert area inside the club the amount of punk rock stars teamed up in
numbers, Troublemakers, Psykbryt, Baboon Show, Ligisterna, Nasum… you name it. This
magic moment no one wanted to miss. But many did to their anoyment missed it.
Note, that Kiss played for 50 000 at Friends Arena and there was a punk festival
going on in town at the same time.
Alonzo Fas 3
The concert
started with the KSMBs album “Rika barn leka bäst” intro then they went into “602”
and then the party was on. I can´t say I ve heard them better onstage. The band
was perfect tight, the sound good and the connection between the crowd and the
band was there from the first chord. Even the new song “Matilda” that I´ve been
a bit doubtful about, was in its right element. There was no question that a
record means a lot to a band like this, to any band. All the new songs got sing
a´longs after the record was released last month. People were now familiar with
the new songs. The mosh pit was on and I bet there was more sweat there than in
the Stockholm Marathon than had been going on the same morning. The crowd
response seems to trigger the men on stage to an excellent job.
“Dörrterror”, “Klockan 8”, “Det förlovade landet”, “Dansa som en fjäril”,
“Det bästa som hänt” etc.
In between Alonzo get personal
and told us that he was a battered kid in his childhood. I realize that the
stage persona Alonzo can talk about matters that might be harder to tell in
person a bit like theraphy. And I think it´s one of the reasons he and the band
have gotten from good to great.
The crowd
demanded an encore in a very loud way. And so they did. With Blomman from
Troublemakers, Micke and Bonni from Asta Kask doing “Aomreaggae (Harrisburg)” and “Jag vill dö” as rather chaotic numbers
all in the tradition of punk all the legends on stage brought to us a long time
ago,
a perfect start to the evening.
Asta Kask
Asta Kask got
a gigant moshpit from the first down stroke on the distorted guitars. Like Asta
kask was here to prove that they are the main band of Swedish old school punk.
It was already sweaty and full of adrenaline in the moshpit when Alonzo Fas 3
went off stage, Asta just turned up the heat a bit. Got some more to join the
pit. “Psykiskt instabil”, TVn” and more did the job, Just to cool it down a bit
with a bunch of new songs that most people never heard before. Due to technical problems the Spotify release
of the new album “Handen på hjärtat” wasn´t up until a few hours before the
concert. And the most new songs were unfamiliar to me so I didn´t went berserk
during them, but I backed off a bit to look upon them with a bit of others
glasses. On stage I could see a band that have grown from a 2:30 fast tune kängpunk band to a band that could be a big stage main band. The new songs was like
they were having a big stage in mind for the epic concerts . And possible will
that be so when people know the new songs. What made me go berserk was “Inget
ljus” and in the moshpit I thought, if I die of a heart attack now it would be
great. “Patriarkatet”, “AB böna och be” and “Psykopaten” made people sing along
like they never done anything else. Like “Dom får aldrig mig” steered up
violent pogoing.
The old crowd pleasers got the crowd
sing a long in a volume that was incredible “Especially during the slower “Psykopaten”.
I never heard such loud calls for encores like last night. That’s when the
stage diving began. And the band invited ex band members to join them on stage.
“Ringhals Brinner”, “Vill inte va med” was excellent crowd pleasers. Even if
they played a long set, they left out tunes like “Lasse liten”.
But we wanted more. The whole crowd demanded a second encore, that, the
band hadn´t planned for…so they made
a lottery where members of the audience could pick a song written on a bit of
paper. “hjärndöd” was one of them.
And so…
Outside the sweaty club, in the outdoor
bar, the party was in full bloom, but as much I enjoyed the moment, the perfect
start of the summer, I also felt numb and empty, now it was all over. Others
said they wanted to find another party or club to keep them in that terrific
mood. I doubt they did found that.
Worth the money, 180SEK? I can´t help
feel like I wanna do it again, and again and again.