By Andrew Bansal
July 19th 2015, Los Globos, Los Angeles CA: Towards the end of a run of US tour dates, longstanding New York punk rock group The Casualties visited their second home, i.e. Los Angeles, for an all-ages matinee gig at Los Globos last Sunday July 19 2015, put together by the ever-industrious local heavy music promotional organization Thee Static Age. They brought with them three street punk bands as support acts, Bad Engrish from Denver CO, Austin TX based Sniper 66, and East Los Angeles’ own Corrupted Youth. Casualties shows in this city are always filled to the brim with youthful energy, and this one promised to be no different.
The queue of ticket holders and prospective ticket buyers outside the venue before the show was long, and littered with odors of low-quality street hot dogs and cheap alcohol. Doors opened at around 3:30 and the downstairs hall inside Los Globos quickly got completely occupied. Contrary to modern trend, most of the 500-plus that had RSVPd on the facebook page actually showed up. The crowd was young and the excitement was palpable.
Many of The Casualties’ past few Los Angeles appearances have been as part of diverse lineups, with bands such as GWAR, Toxic Holocaust and English Dogs, and on festivals like Warped Tour. This crossover was perhaps what drew Metal Assault’s interest towards The Casualties in the first place. But on this occasion, it was a street punk lineup from start to finish, and even though it served the purpose excellently for attendees that came here to see an out-and-out punk show, from my perspective it was far less interesting than previous Casualties LA shows. Every band was much too similar to each other. But with that being said, it was the kind of show where each band was better than the one before them. As the show progressed and Corrupted Youth, Sniper 66 and The Bad Engrish played in that order, the crowd’s energy levels kept going up, and The Bad Engrish certainly received the best response among the three support acts. But these punk fans still had plenty of fuel left in them for the headline act.
The Casualties hit the stage at 6:30, and for all intents and purposes, so did the entire crowd. As soon as the band started their set, massive amounts of stage-diving ensued, to the extent that it was hard to differentiate the four band members from the dozen or so stage intruders that were up there at any given time. Plus, the Los Globos stage being as low as it is, made it even harder to see the band. But it was all in good fun and part of the punk rock experience, even though a few songs into the set, bassist Rick Lopez intervened and requested people to respect the stage.
The Casualties certainly brought their A-game and did full justice to their loyal Los Angeles fan-following. When it comes to high-energy straightforward punk rock, they are undeniably one of the last remaining worthy flagbearers. As they do not seem to age at all despite having gone relentlessly strong for the past 25 years, they will continue to represent the genre and anyone with the desire to experience what a punk rock concert feels like, must go see The Casualties at the earliest available opportunity. This Los Globos Sunday matinee bore witness to the best from The Casualties as well as their fans.
For full video coverage of the show, visit Arturo Gallegos’ YouTube channel.