Toxic Holocaust, The Casualties, and The English Dogs At The Key Club

Toxic Holocaust, The Casualties, and The English Dogs @ The Key Club 2/24

Because all of the bullshit traffic for the Oscars, got to the Key Club right in the nick of time to see...

Toxic Holocaust - Toxic Holocaust is probably my favorite "new band" and the only band I really wanted to see that night: Mostly due to the fact they sound exactly like all of the 80s metal bands I used to like. They sounded great and played a super tight set that seemed to be pandering the punk element of the crowd a bit, sticking to their older simpler "punky" material. The mosh pit didn't stop pretty much their entire set. It seemed like a lot of people in the crowd (that strangely resembled the cast of extras from the movie Idiocarcy) didn't really know who they were, but widely agreed that Toxic Holocaust kicked ass. The only thing I could take away from their set was they played as a three piece, a lot of bottom end dropped out on the sections that were arranged for 2 guitars on their recordings. A second guitar player would have beefed things up, but at least they weren't...

The Casualties - I honestly had never heard them before. The day of the show, I pulled up a few of their songs on Spotify and it sounded like pretty decent fast hardcore. I thought I'd probably like them -- boy, was I wrong! First problem, they seemed to be suffering from AVS Syndrome (Avenged Sevenfold Syndrome) and had spent more hours glueing their hair up and knitting their Exploited patches strategically into place then they'd spent turning their guitars. The whole thing wreaked of a bad combination of NYC harcore mixed with Hot Topic and The Jersey Shore. What was decent to me on Spotify just hours before now sounded like a badly mixed pile of shitty unorganized noise; fronted by perhaps the fattest / worst Emo-punk frontman in history purposefully tight fitting shit with a giant flabby beer gut and goofy pink hair. This however, did not detour the cast of retards that came out to see them (who seemed to be densely packed with an inordinate number of overweight mexican women). The mosh pit stepped up a notch and the stage became stage-dive fest the likes of which I hadn't seen in years. The highlight of their set: I was standing at back by the bar and a few of their mongoloid fans tried to start a mosh pit in the area and kept knocking my overpriced beer out of my hand. After several hits, I took my beer and threw it up in the air and watched all of the participants fall over on their heads from the liquid on the floor -- after which, the bartender yelled at them and told them to slam dance up front. Despite the cavalcade of suck, it was clearly The Casualties show. I kinda felt bad for...

The English Dogs - They were one of the bands I had liked in High School and had on vinyl, but their music never made enough of a impact on me for them to survive my transition to CDs and then an iPod. Before the show, I pulled up a few of their tracks on Spotify and was surprised to actually be able to recall the songs. I remembered why I'd bought two of their albums. I really expected nobody to stick around after The Casualties, but it seemed 70% of the crowd was still there, perhaps out of sheer morbid curiosity or knowing that this is something they'd never see again (and probably won't). The English Dogs have to be old as dirt, as far as I knew they hadn't put out an album since 1986 (winds up they've put out quite a few). They came out and played "Forward In Battle" pretty much in track order. The English Dogs version of Crossover doesn't really come across naturally like DRI or Municipal Waste -- the drummer came out from behind his kit at one point and addressed the crowd, "We tried this in England 25 years ago and nobody 'got it', but I glad the Los Angeles 'gets it' tonight." I'm not really sure that was true. One thing I sure as hell never noticed was how awesome the guitar player, who looked like a slightly older Keith Richards, was. He must have been practicing a lot because in all of these wasted years because that sure as hell never translated to any of their albums. The guys is the Steve Vai of punk rock, seriously. A good bit of the set seemed to be structured around his noodling. I wasn't expecting to watch the whole show but wound up sticking around just for the guitar solos.

The Aftermath - I know it's tough for a band on tour so after the show I figured I'd pick up a Toxic Holocaust shirt or something (that and I might have illegally downloaded a few of their albums I couldn't find on iTunes). They either have the worst manager in the world or had totally sold out of merch (first scenario most likely) because they had like one crappy looking shirt while the rest of the bands seemed to be making bank selling a large assortment of Tot Topicy items with their logo on it. After the show, I went over to The Rainbow and was pretty blotto by this point. Ran into the guys in The English Dogs shook the guitar players hand, praised him for his abilities - he was pretty much a dick. Ran into the singer of Toxic Holocaust who is a super nice guy. We talked about music (which we both agreed on 100%), the fact he had actually heard of my band, and the the guy who signed them to Relapse was a childhood friend of mine who still holds a grudge on me because the drummer of my high school band boiked his girlfriend back when I was 15. I think I might have offered to join his band, not sure, by the end of the night I was blacked out on Jager (as usual).

Sorry about not having any photos, there wasn't much good to look at anyway.

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Tags:  Toxic Holocaust, The Casualties, The English Dogs , show review

Jay Quinlan (Dick Delicious)    February 28, 2012