Refugiadas from Sao Paulo, with Rotterdam bands Die Nakse Bananen and Bombstrap, played a free concert in Schiedam!
On Thursday 23rd January 2025, Brazilians Refugiadas played in the Graauwe Hengst venue, as part of their first European tour, in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and France. Two other punk bands, both from Rotterdam, close to Schiedam, played as well. Bombstrap first band, Die Nakse Bananen as third and last band.
Refugiadas are: Angelita, vocals. Like in the Ramones (and the Ramonas from Brighton, England) the tallest band member is the singer. She had a Crass logo on her clothes. Red-haired Taty plays guitar. Blue-haired Kél plays bass. Their regular drummer was in trouble with her aeroplane ticket, so only three Refugiadas arrived in Europe for the tour.
Fortunately, Neri, a Brazilian living temporarily in Germany offred his services as not only the tour manager and driver, but also the replacement drummer at this Refugiadas tour, as he is the drummer of Mullet Monster Mafia.
The Graauwe Hengst (Grey Stallion) is a live music pub in Schiedam, a town that is historically the center of the Dutch jenever (gin) industry. The Graauwe Hengst was one of hundreds of local distilleries. But, as capitalism often works, big business kills smaller business. The Graauwe Hengst closed down. The empty building decayed for years until, in 1974, new owners made it a pub, with a stage for poetry and diverse types of music: jazz, blues, rock; later, punk as well.
A low stage made contact between bands and audience easier. Black, white, young, old, from Schiedam, from elsewhere in the Netherlands, Brazilian diaspora people: the numerous spectators on this Thursday evening – who might have been even more numerous with publicity on the Graauwe Hengst social media (which are updated rarely). There was this only poster (not mentioning Bombstrap).
Half of Rotterdam band Bombstrap are originally from Manchester in England. They are Zounds fans. They started the first song of the night, ‘Heiligenblut’ with their lyricist Eva Kah singing loudly and intensely, moving about frantically both on and off the stage. Guitarist Devon Cryer and bassist Robin Esschendal wore hoodies, while Lemmy Konijn played drums.
The guitarist didn’t only play Johnny Ramone-style downstrokes (which I love), but more than that, without descending into endless ‘symphonic’ soloing. Here is a live video of their song ‘Big Enemy‘.
The band name Refugiadas means Refugee Women in Portuguese. They are from Sao Paulo, the biggest city in Brazil. They got together in September 2021; when the coronavirus pandemic caused catastrophic death in Brazil, with mass graves in Sao Paulo and Manaus. ‘Right-wing president Bolsonaro, who claimed that COVID was just a flu, refused to have public health measures, making very many people die’, Refugiadas guitarist Taty told me. ‘That was a fascist government. There is another government now, but all problems from the Bolsenaro days are not yet solved’.
The first song of their set was ´Césio-137´. This is a live video of their second song ‘Padroes de beleza‘ (Beauty standards).
In Brazil, like elsewhere, many women feel anxious about conforming to ‘beauty standards’, which may cause panic spending on plastic surgery, eating disorders, etc.
The lyrics are, translated:
“Unattainable models of beauty
That generate serious consequences
In our body and mind
Stereotypes are created to deceive, persecute and humiliate
Femininity is a demand of society
Forged to please
To be an object of consumption
To serve capital
To be consumed, to kneel?
To be consumed, to kneel?
Did I choose to be like this
Or did they choose it for me?
Was it a choice?
Or did they trap us within a standard?
Did I choose to be like this
Or did they choose it for me?
Was it a choice?
Or did they trap us within a standard?
Or did they trap us within a standard?
Or did they trap us within a standard?”
The above video is the title track of their LP, played as the sixth song in Schiedam. Like the album and the band, it is called ‘Refugiadas‘. For this song, Kél handed her bass to a guest bassist, enabling her to sing and dance along with Angelita.
The video below is Refugiadas’ seventh song ‘Sistema de Fome‘ (System of Hunger). They sing: “The objective of the system is to hurt with hunger … While the Minister of Economics is a millionaire”. They mean Paulo Guedes, in the Bolsonaro government. Guedes is a banker, whom the public prosecution service investigates for fraud.
Angelita shouted, to her applauding audience, ¨Fuck Donald Trump, and Elon Musk and Zuckerberg!¨ She dedicated a song to the working class all over the world. ¨Are there working-class persons here?¨ Several hands went up. The audience pogoed very enthusiastically to Refugiadas!
Angelita announced their twelfth song as the last one. But after that, the audience very definitely wanted more Refugiadas. So, they played ‘O Mulherão´ (Woman in Brazilian Portuguese) as an encore. Their singer announced it as ¨For all punk girls, for all girls who fight!¨ After the music and the dancing stopped, Refugiadas left the stage amid applause.
I owe an apology to Die Nakse Bananen. It was getting late for my public transport back home, so I had to leave before they started playing their first song ´Think 4 Yourself´. At least, they had given me their setlist – and Terry and her camera were still present!
Here is a 2022 live video of their song ‘Ignorant‘; their sixth song in the Graauwe Hengst:
Founded in 1990, their present line-up is: Deef de Kanarie, drums and vocals:
Nak, guitar; Collin, bass; and Spijker, lead vocals.
The audience went home, very satisfied with all three bands after a really punky gig!
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