The next band (whose name I forgot) urged punks andmetalheads to join together in the pit, breaking the tense opposition that occasionally transpires in the scene.
Toxic Holocaust turned it up to 11 and really brought the thunder. Seeing them for the second time (the first being when Krum Bums opened up at Fitzgerald’s last August), I was far more impressed with their performance this time around. Fists flailed and voices yelled along when they played their trash metal anthem, “Nuke the Cross”.
The Casualties took the stage with unrelenting force and quickness, going straight into “Under Attack”. The pit swirled like a sweaty vortex, fists raised and voices chanted along. It was killer seeing them play a small club like true punks rather than huge venues, considering their status! There was not a dull moment in the show and the band never lost their speed and d-beat rhythm. There was plenty of stage diving, crowd surfing and Houston punx skanking onstage and sharing the mic with lead singer Jorge Herrera. I myself could not resist grabbing themic and chanting “No Solution, No Control”, “The System Failed Us Again” and “Get Off My Back” when the respective songs were played. The show ended with the anthemic title track off their latest album, “We Are All We Have”, bringing us Houston punks together to realize that we ARE all we have, and that we are all in this together.