Hell, I've missed something!!! There's a completely new scene of Thrash Metal growing in Sweden nowadays. I had no idea about this at all. I've seen some of the band names but I never expected that their sound (oh well, perhaps in a few years at least) and looks would be like the majority of the Bay Area elite around 1987. Where the hell did all those cool shirts come from?
Since I didn't even plan to go to this event I missed both WASTER and DR LIVING DEAD. The venue was already overheated when UNDERGΕNG started playing. Cafe 44 is a really small place mostly known for hosting a lot of Punk-gigs back in the old days. Of course, a lot other stuff too but it's mostly connected to Punk and Hardcore. It is crappy and torn, just as filthy as a Punk-club should be. And there was no age-limit so the only drug available was caffeine...

The second UNDERGΕNG started playing the venue turned into a large mosh-pit and people were flying up on and off stage, out the door, into the backstage area. Although it was a complete mess the band seemed to enjoy it and was encouraging people to do more circle-pits, more crowd-surfing, more stage-diving... The music was absolutely right for all the craziness, full-speed old-school Thrash Metal and the performance was good. This band can absolutely do something in the future. But for me this day was not enough of variation. It was the first time I heard the band and most of their material sounded the same.

-Do you want to confess? What's your name? Are you a moshoholic? F.K.U (or Freddy Krueger's Underwear) is perhaps not the most serious band in the world but they can write really good music and keep the humor on a level that doesn't make it as a complete joke. With songs like Moshoholics Anonymous, Sometimes They Come Back To Mosh... pretty much sets the level.

But the question that day was if they were playing or not. They've been canceling a lot of gigs in Stockholm so no one really believed they were going to play until they showed up at the venue. When the intro was supposed to start this guy walks up on stage saying there's been an accident in the dressing room and one of the guys from F.K.U hurt himself so they couldn't play. He wasn't convincing enough so the joke got lost and no one actually believed him. The band entered the stage seconds later.

And this was a completely different class than UNDERGΕNG. Tight, dynamic and a well rehearsed stage performance. (If you can call it that, when the stage was so small it's hard for the musicians to move) I just hope that the younger bands can be influenced from them because it was so much more fun to see a band when you actually can hear what they were playing.
The venue was still super hot and the corpse-paint F.K.U had on, was actually gone after the concert. With and without paint, the crowd still loved them and kept moshing, diving, circle-pitting for the entire gig. It was fascinating to see the determination of the fans, they looked half dead at the end but hell no, and they didn't give up the moshing anyway.

High octane moshing takes its toll and I think everyone was fully fed with Thrash at the end of the evening. Or perhaps the tiredness could be due to the lack of oxygen in the venue. This was definitely a disadvantage in this place, both for the band and the fans. It is hard to really enjoy a concert when it's hard to breathe. Of course places like these are always needed for younger metal-heads to hang out too. And perhaps, some of the older ones can see that it's possible to go out, see a band and have a good time without alcohol.

(photos from the crypt by Erika)

F.K.U.