A Night of Drunken Punk Rock Nov 12 '03    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet The Bottom Line A night of alcohol, punk, and pain... how can you go wrong? This show, since being announced back in early September, brought about a lot of buzz amongst my group of friends. Eagerly awaited was the return of the Casualties, since seeing them back in March in Hamilton with Bad Religion. And, of course, there was much anticipation for the Dropkick Murphy's. So, obviously, we were quite pumped for this show. Finally, the tenth of November rolled around. Preparing for the show by buying copious amounts of alcohol, we trekked out to Toronto, courtesy of my buddy Patrick. We arrived a little late, missing most of the set by the first band, Crowned Kings. From what I gathered, they were a pop-punk ska band, very reminiscent of say, Less Than Jake. Unfortunately, since I missed a good 90% of their set, and the other 10% was spent handing out flyers for my website, I can't comment on this band. After that, a band called Avoid One took the stage (at least, I believe it was Avoid One, I may be mistaken.). Again, still handing out flyers, so I missed their set as well. Soon after, The Casualties took the stage. Finally, some familiarity! They opened with the crowd-pleaser "Fight for Your Life", where the majority of the song is just that phrase shouted over and over. They also played a bunch of other favourites, including Punk Rock Love, For the Punx, Punx and Skins, Nightmare, Punx Unite, No Turning Back, and of course, asking who liked The Ramones, the song Made in NYC, a tribute to Joey Ramone. They also played a song off their upcoming album, which I missed the title of. After that, The Dropkick Murphy's went on. Let me state right now that while from what I've heard, I like, however, I'm not a huge Dropkick Murphy's fan and know next to nothing when it comes to which songs they played. They opened with an instrumental, which I believe was called Victory. After playing a plethora of other songs (the only ones I recognized was Barroom Hero, The Spicy McHaggis Jig, Walk Away, Boys on the Docks, The Gang's All Here, and the sing-along hockey song Time To Go, about the Boston Bruins. And, although I previously mentioned that I knew little of The Dropkick Murphy's music, they put on one hell of a show. I was a little disappointed they didn't play The Gauntlet or Ten Years of Service, though. Or the song off of Give 'Em the Boot 3, The Legend of Finn McCumhail. Highlights of the Night: a) When all the girls got on stage during The Spicy McHaggis Jig. b) Seeing my friend Jesse's mangled face and his blood-soaked clothes after smashing his nose while stage-diving during The Casualties. c) When The Dropkick Murphy’s played Time To Go. I didn’t know the words but it was really fun to hear live. Weirdest Moment of the Night: When the GG Allen wannabe weirdo was trying to get us to slash him with a broken beer can. My buddy Tristan actually did, and then the guy tried to cut him back. After harassing the rest of us, we eventually got the bouncer to kick him out. His chest was all bloody and mangled... it was pretty weird. All in all, though, a great show. The Casualties haven't disappointed me yet, and The Dropkick Murphy's put on a damned good show. I’ve always said you can tell how good a concert is by how achy or bruised you are the next day. And let me tell you… I am very bruised. My final rating: Four Busted Lips out of Five.

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