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Rating: Ok: after my friends nagged me for months and months about this concert, we finally find ourselves at the Vidia Club in Cesena on 01/16/10, way ahead of time (well, we like to arrive very early at concerts). After spending two, three hours telling jokes, drinking beer and watching more or less tall, more or less colorful mohawks arrive, they finally open the doors at 9 PM. We enter: the venue is nice, I had never been there before. The look is way too much like a posh club (and the people who will arrive after the concert will confirm it for me), but for some reason I like it, it's small but all in all a nice place. And anyway, we're not here for that.
The first group on the lineup is One Foot Disaster, homegrown at the Vidia (they're from Cesena) and creators of a melodious hardcore punk with more than a nod to NOFX and Sum 41. The proposition might be debatable (after two songs, which as you might guess were very short, they had already worn me out), but they were nice, they knew how to engage the still sparse audience, and they had a bassist who knew his stuff. Moreover, they had energy to spare, something that makes the difference in a punk concert, and that allows them to earn a pass.
A quick change of stage and One Trax Mind from Abruzzo takes the stage: the singer/guitarist acts like the worst kind of rockstar and immediately becomes insufferable, but their fast-paced and energetic punk n' roll inspired by Rancid is appreciated. Also, to their credit, their drummer is a beast, pounding the drums like Dave Grohl in the good old days. The audience supports them, but the room is still half-empty, with almost no sign of the big mohawks: they must still be drinking, I think to myself.
A not-so-quick change of stage this time (more than twenty minutes is too much for a group like the Casualties) and here come, besides the mostly drunk punks, the beloved New York punk rockers. Intro taken from "Casualties Army", one two three four and it's madness right away. People flying everywhere, stage diving, punks getting on stage, shouting random stuff into the mic and diving back into the frenzy, a riotous mosh pit: the audience is entirely on their side. The Victims, for their part, roll out their anthems one after another: "Tomorrow Belongs to Us", "Casualties Army/On the Front Line", "Ugly Bastards", "Riot", "Punk Rock Love", "Get Off My Back", "Unknown Soldier" and the dedication to the fellow citizens/patron saints Ramones with "Made in NYC", linking to the now famous cover of "Blitzkrieg Bop", a staple of all their concerts. The band is in great shape, guitarist Jake encourages the audience to sing and slam to the rhythm of hardcore punk, and the audience obviously complies! The only off note is, ironically, the man everyone came to see: Jorge, singer, leader and the only original member still in the band. Right from the start, not helped by his less than perfect physical shape (to put it mildly: he's gained quite a bit of weight), his no longer youthful age and a body worn out by excess, he seems tired and weak. He lets Jake, the true star of the evening, sing half the songs, has the audience sing the other half in chorus, and what's left he sings poorly, without much energy and at a volume far too low. A disappointment, considering that most of the audience came for him, the driving force of the Casualties, a role that now seems to have passed to the guitarist.
Despite everything, though, it was a good concert. The audience seems satisfied, and several people rush to the merchandise stand to buy patches, t-shirts, CDs, and so on, someone even takes home a copy of One Trax Mind's album but most importantly everyone takes home a picture with Jake, always kind and available at the stand... while Jorge is nowhere to be found. A shame. Let's hope for next time.
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