Gig Review: Refused + Delivery + Baby Mullet at Northcote Theatre, Melbourne

Live review: Refused, Delivery and Baby Mullett at Northcote Theatre. Melbourne on Thursday, December 4 2025

By BRENDAN DELAVERE

REFUSED are fucking dead! Again.

After a tumultuous first run at being a band in the nineties, releasing a classic album that changed the face of hardcore punk and set the standard for what a hardcore record could be and then imploding so spectacularly that they released a cult DVD of that final tour, no one thought that the Swedish four piece would be revived. When they did in 2012, many never considered that we’d be getting a proper send off for the band a decade later.

As part of the Good Things Festival, this is the Swedes’ only sideshow, and the sold out Northcote Theatre has a line wrapping around the corner awaiting doors open.

Garage punk trio Baby Mullet open to the assembled few with short, fast, choppy riffing. It’s loud enough to get a few heads nodding. Bassist Kate lets us know how nervous she was leading up to this show, so she put on some Refused to calm her down, the irony  not lost that the “one thing causing my anxiety, is also calming my anxiety”.

Fresh off their support of Franz Ferdinand (this reviewer having caught them two nights prior), Naarm locals Delivery are up next. With a short changeover time we are straight into a half hour set of garage indie rock, the five piece share vocal duties across a plethora of cuts from recent release Force Majeure. “Deadlines”, “Digging the Hole” and “What For?”, the band sound great though their jangly guitar driven rock seems a bit at odds compared to the brazen hardcore punk of the headliners.

Refused take the stage. A graceful entry, not the spontaneous running one might expect of a band with such hard hitting and highly energetic discography. That moment didn’t last long, as the four piece exploded with the power of a bomb straight into “Poetry Written in Gasoline”, a perfect example of what Refused really is. The program tonight is a celebration of over three decades of Refused, “The Refused Party Program”, “Blood Red” and “Rather Be Dead” with its iconic building chug of a riff culminating in a bombastic detonation, Dennis screaming “rather be alive” as the pit inside the Northcote Theatre roils.

“The Deadly Rhythm” evolves into Slayer’s “Raining Blood” before returning to its free jazz like bridge and cyclonic riffing.

“We’ve always been a political band” states Lyxzén, “and after 30 years we’re still a political band”, with a Palestinian flag draped over the amp stack, calls of “Free Palestine” echo around the room.

Whilst the pit action for majority of the set had been kept to more of a mosh than a circle, old school hardcore track “Circle Pit” really opened it up, Lyxzén flinging his mic into the air with reckless abandon.

Reiterating that this show is their final club show outside of Sweden before the band call it a day for a second time, with the only track from their reunion record Freedom, “Elektra”, Lyxzén moves across the stage like a snake on cocaine, jilted yet smooth, mic lead flicking like an uncontrollable tail. Mattias Bärjed and Magnus Flagge flank the wild vocalist, they themselves in constant movement. The unmistakable “New Noise” with its iconic riffing build in, the electronic swirl, the frantic “can I scream!”. Everyone’s dancing and it’s not the wrong song!

Believe it or not this is not the closing track, that goes to a shortened version of “Tannhäuser/Derivè”. It’s a slow burn of a track and as the house lights didn’t come back on, we were of naturally due an encore which came moments later.

The riotous “Coup d’etat”, frenetic and furious, and set closer “Pump The Brakes” taking it back to where it all began. Refused are far from fucking dead but at least this time we got the chance to say good bye.

MAIN PIC: Brendan Delavere