On Sunday night July 27 I attended my last concert for the month of July. Right on the heels of Stiff Little Fingers I saw the very wild Casualties show. The Casualties, a hard core punk band from NYC, came on stage and the first thing front man/singer Jorge Herrera did was take a cup of beer and hold it about four inches above his mouth and pour it in. Most of it slopped all over him and he performed the rest of the night drenched with beer. His bleached spikes were gone and he now wore his hair straight and dyed an orange hue.
The minute the guitars began churning and the drums banging and Jorge began his sneering growl, the slamming began with a vengeance. So did the stage diving. There was barely a moment when some punk wasn’t on stage and taking a flying leap back into the crowd, sometimes stopping a moment to share Jorge’s mic for a bit of harmonizing.
Between songs band members traded corny jokes, some of which I’d heard members of NOFX tell, so I wonder if there’s some sort of joke library for punk rockers.
By the end of the show fans were clamoring to climb onto the stage and soon there must have been a dozen or so sharing mics and dancing arm in arm before one by one they all took flying leaps back into the packed crowd. This was one very wild show and at times it seemed my back would crack in two from getting slammed into so much and one stage diver nearly kicked me in the face as he tumbled onto outstretched arms.
The rest of the Casualties are, Rick Lopez – bass, Jake Kolatis – guitar, and Marc “Meggers” Eggers on drums.
Prior to the Casualties was Seattle’s own Go Like Hell. Go Like Hell Fire would be a more appropriate name. These guys set the stage on fire and fanned the flames non-stop. Singer Anita Rainier belted out songs with furious conviction with the other band members performing three-part harmony. Although there wasn’t really any singing per se as much as it was screaming, so that would be scream-ony? She was all over the stage, pacing back and forth and to the front to rile the crowd and even kissed the fingers of one dude who reached out to her.
Go Like Hell play a loud and fast hard core punk with just the right amount of scream and they’re fascinating to watch. It was good to see them again. The other members of Go Like Hell are, Luvleggs – Guitar, Vocals ( who played the entire set wearing a polk-a-dot dress), Elvis Christ – Lead Guitar, Vocals, Dick Whiskey – Drums and Jonny Safari – Bass.
The first band I saw at this show was White City Graves. I sensed great stage presence in this band. The force was strong with them. All four members were very energetic. Bass player Josh “Gorilla” Danford had a mop of shaggy, shoulder length hair that he whipped about almost constantly. Adam Ketola (Vocals, Guitar) strutted about the stage as if it were on fire while guitarist Wes Wesley (the cutest one) and drummer Chris Black held things together. They definitely are worth seeing.
Unfortunately I missed Raw Dogs’ set. As a photographer, the lure of a promising sunset caused me to take a detour to get some photos. I won’t feel guilty. I’ve seen the Raw Dogs about three times in the last month and have about 300 pictures of them. Word from those who saw their set is that they rocked it. This doesn’t surprise me.
When the night was over I limped outside and would wait until it was light again to survey how many bruises I ended up with after this wild show.
– All photos property of Holly Homan, all rights reserved.
