I’d say the Casualties stole the show. They came on stage all punked out with singer Jorge Herrera looking like a giant sunflower with bleached spikes sticking at least six inches straight off his head. Bass player Rick Lopez had blue dyed hair, while guitarist Jake Kolatis sported a paintbrush Mohawk. The Casualties look the punk part and they play the punk part. They are authentic hard core and very unpretentious. They sprung into their song Tomorrow Belongs To Us the second they hit the stage. The circle pits, crowd surfing and endless stage diving never relented. Herrera fed off the audience frenzy and they fed off him. He goaded them, taunted them and the security staff finally gave up preventing kids from tumbling head over heels onto the stage before taking a flying leap back into the crowd. They could not hold back the tsunami force of this night’s crowd. Kolatis shredded more guitar chords than a shady politician shreds incriminating documents. By the end of the show several fans had either tumbled, climbed or surfed onto the stage to dance with the band and sing harmonies, sharing the mike with Herrera — and he was only too happy to oblige them. At one point I couldn’t see the band, just a sea of kids in punk attire and sporting mohawks. One dude wore his pants at half-mast and mooned those left on the dance floor and up in the balcony. I’d seen The Casualties before, once opening for the Dropkick Murphys in 2003 and again at Warped Tour, but nothing compares to this night. This band has totally evolved. I saw essence of Johnny Rotten in Herrera, complete with knocked out teeth and a sneer. I’m battered and bruised and my nose hurts from when someone slammed into me while I was framing a shot and caused my camera to slam into my nose at brute force.
They are pure psychobilly with a recurring macabre theme in their songs. Bassist Kim Nekroman uses an upright bass in the shape of a coffin and this has become their steadfast trademark. The Nekromantix are also unique in that they have a female drummer (Lux). She’s also the cutest member and tiny to the point that she’s dwarfed by the drum kit. Francisco Mesa balances out the band’s power on guitar.
Nekroman is fascinating to watch. He rode his bass like a horse and held it like a guitar all without missing a lick. They played a short set, though, and did not perform an encore. Still, they put on a great show and it was great seeing them again.
The Sheds started out slow, but after about the third song they really started to heat up. The Sheds were a lot of fun and definitely worthy of being included in a hardcore punk show.
Prior to The Sheds were Lower Class Brats from Austin, Texas. This is a band I’ve had some familiarity with, having heard them on KGRG radio. To sum this band up in one word, I’d say, oi! oi! oi! Or I could use four words and describe them as Oi To The Max. They held nothing back and they looked punk! Singer Bones DeLarge had cropped bleached hair and could rile the audience into a frenzy in seconds flat. Joey the Kid, on drums, exhibited a smooth paintbrush mohawk. Watching Lower Class Brats was like riding a huge roller coaster and I was just as disheartened when the ride was over.
Down By Law, a band with a long history in LA Punk, put on a great show. For their finale they performed the Proclaimers hit, “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles),” on which the drummer sang lead.
Other bands playing this show were, Right Your Wrongs, No Buffer and Trash and The Timebombs. All of the bands put on outstanding performances and are all worthy of any oi fan to check out. Flatfoot 56 were on the bill but didn’t show up. No explanation was given unless it was done before I got there. I was disappointed as I’ve seen them before and liked them. But the bands that did perform more than made up for that disappointment. This was a wild, fun night.
All photos property of Holly Homan, all rights reserved.
Holly Homan has seen and photographed Nekromantix at least seven times in the last handful of years. To see Nekromantix through the years, go here.
