The punx (note the X) were out in full force on Independence Day at the Starlight Ballroom to see their heroes, the Casualties and Leftover Crack turn a bunch of young suburbanites into their own miniature Johnny Rottens.
Opening band Hate And War (added because Trash Talk mysteriously dropped off) was pretty much as punk as you can be, at least in the instrument department. One guitar player played a mini guitar, the bass player (with some insane liberty spikes as you can tell from the photos) had some random 4-stringer and their amps seemed like whatever was on sale at Guitar Center. Not the worst opening band in the world but not the best either, Hate And War made some kids freak out but the majority of the crowd sat at the booths lining the walls of the Starlight.
What can be said about the Casualties? Much loved, long running and they show no signs of slowing down. Kids young and old went completely off for the throwback punks, especially one kid that lead singer Jorge dragged out of the crowd to sing along with him on a song about being Hispanic in punk rock. The highlight of their set was the new song that will be on their new record of the same name, "We're All We Have." It genuinely stood out for some unknown reason. Not that the Casualties took a page out of the Radiohead book, it's still three chords, played angrily with Jorge yelling something in the proverbial foreground.
Leftover Crack prides themselves on being the bottom of the barrel, and that connects with the youth of America so much that the members keep having to start new bands that less people like (Star Fucking Hipsters, Morning Glory). A long cry from their roots in NYC's street punk scene, Leftover Crack fans now make up kids who'd be seen at a Weird Al show and the standard flat-brimmed hat crowd, something that seems almost fake at a Leftover Crack show.
The most interesting part of the set was when singer Stza Crack decided to read a preview of their show that appeared on the R5 Productions site, angrily trying to get kids on their side. It wasn't a big deal until Stza railed against R5 and questioning their worth to the punk scene, saying that "we'd never do shit like this in New York." Does Stza know anything about how invaluable to this city R5 is? Just because the fan base for the bands on this show is young and impressionable, that's no reason to try and turn them against one of the best things this city has going for it. No one from the production staff said a word about it and just groaned as Stza went on and on. I groaned as well. In the 8 years since I first saw LOC at some punk show in New Jersey, not much has changed. They're still the same old punks, which I guess is a good thing for everyone else...just not for me.
