Search - The Casualties: Can't Stop Us on DVD

A taste of old-school, down-and-dirty touring the hard way

George Dionne | Cape Cod, MA | 04/27/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The Good
Can't Stop Us is more of a documentary than is a concert video. The first half of the DVD focuses on the punk group's tour in Mexico. This section is padded heavily with behind-the-scenes material. In between that you do get some live performances, but most are not presented to completion of the song. It was interesting to see how rabid the fans were for this group. I have never heard of them, but clearly the people of Mexico have. There were two interesting segments that caught my attention.

The first took place in Mexico City. The Casualties were set to play a festival type show with a 2am set time. The set time wasn't the shocking part. The shocking part was when a gang of kids decided that they didn't want to pay to get into the show. All hell broke loose and the show was eventually postponed to the next day. The fear that the band was experiencing was quite genuine. The second incident took place the next day when the show finally went on. A fan was heckling the band when frontman Jorge brought him on stage to find out why.

This guy goes into a rant on how The Casualties are Capitalists for charging $15 dollars for a concert. The guy had a lot of balls, and The casualties showed a lot of restraint. It just goes to show you that everyone doesn't have it as good as the U.S. and other countries. The second half of the DVD highlights a tour through Japan. You can clearly see a difference in culture from the Mexico tour. This portion of the DVD focuses more on the wild and frenzied live performances. It still has its share of interesting tour footage.

The Bad
You can't just go into this blind, you really have to be a fan of the group to enjoy it thoroughly.

The Verdict
It's nice to know that The Casualties are out there keeping the spirit of punk rock alive. On their latest DVD you really do get to see a different side of the music industry. Instead of the typical big production shows you get with concert DVDs, with top-notch lighting, a huge stage, a packed arena, and perfect sound; Can't Stop Us now gives you a taste of old-school, down-and-dirty touring the hard way. I don't think The Casualties would have it any other way.

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