It’s easy to understand why government authorities don’t give out Visas like lollies. There’s Mushti Machommed from greater Biddleonia with a history of unibombing suddenly claiming he’s turned over a new leaf, no longer wants to kill the enemy in the name of Yahweh. Then there’s Jorge from The Casualties who is the lead vocalist from one of those nasty, nasty punk bands who wants to come to Australia to entertain fans with live music (and then go home again). How dare they be preposterous enough to think that they can get a Visa just like that! There is the story of how The Casualties shows came to be postponed twice and why the punters were even more excited to see them in the country than they would ordinarily have been.

Supports for this gig came in the way of No Idea and The Worst. No Idea is a punk band from Melbourne who got together in mid ’96. They did an excellent job of warming up the crowd and the front section was in full slam mode by the end of their set.

The Worst are also from Melbourne. And despite being together for ten years, have only recently recorded a full-length LP, (Too Fast For Life – 2009) having first released an EP in 2005. The four piece unit growled and screamed their way through a ‘nice’ little set of old skool punk songs which included the patriotic ‘Home To Melbourne’ along with ‘Scumbag Town’…just to get us really confused. It was the vocalist Simon (Chunga) Chung’s birthday and that meant a few party favours were in store, like a stage full of punk girls during one song, one of whom reached round and groped the birthday boy and brought a definite smile to his face. It’s difficult to believe this band have been embroiled in controversy in the past. On this night the band was very well received by the punters, and the only motivation was to provide themselves and us with a great experience punk style.

The Casualties were supposed to take the stage at about 10pm, but it was quite a bit later when the N.Y. street punk legends got their chance to spit venom. Their die hard and extremely loyal Melbourne fans were there to hear the chants they know and love and had waited through two show cancellations and venue changes to see their punk heroes. So far the band has released about 8 full-length albums, 3 EP’s and 3 live albums.

The latest addition to The Casualties stable is the compilation For the Casualties Army, which draws from twenty years worth of classic punk anthems. In, what at one point would have seemed a lone rant against the take over of 90’s grunge, the boys penned and performed their politically and socially conscious songs with the intent of keeping punk alive. This they did. After 20 years the energy is still there. Jorge still has his gravity defying ‘do’ and can scream it out with the best. Meggers, Rick and Jake provided the musical sounds that embody the punk movement, with an almost unparalleled urgency and anger.

It’s brilliant to know that their album We Are All We Have – 2009 is considered to be their most diverse and their best. Perhaps this gives us hope that The Casualties will continue to exist for a long time into the future. The boys are enjoying penning the music themselves, with Megger’s dad having a go too, and writing “Apocalypse Today”. The band have always put a lot of energy into touring and now that the powers that be have figured the guys won’t be a threat to national security, The Casualties might come back again soon and convince the person with the rubber stamp to let them in ahead of Mushti, the newly conceived pacifist.