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Coney Island High 4/22/99
 

last night I frequented a club known as Coney Island High to attend a benefit show for one Jimmy Gestapo.  it appears he has broken his dick and needs surgery to get it fixed (ouch!)

Well the bands that I managed to catch were of questionable stature and talent.  the first band was called Agonstic Front and the headlining band were appropriately called Murphy's Law.

Agnostic Front played a handful of songs but limited their set to about 45 minutes.  mostly they played songs off their last album "Somthing's Gotta Give."  The pit went crazy during their set.  I was exhausted after their set, although I was exhausted after walking half the way to the water from the boardwalk at Venice Beach.  If I get another chance I will probably see this band again.  They were decent for an opening act.  for some reason many of the skinheads had tattoos of the letters AF right above their waste lines?

The headliners, aka Murphy's Law, played slightly longer.  They lasted a healthy 1.5 hours, but the singer was slightly stage happy and talked a lot.  He was pretty funny though.  He talked about the Trench Coat Mafia and dedicated a song to them, but said rather than going on a killing rampage they should have come to Coney Island High were we would have accepted them for who they were.  I think the song was called Care Bear.  The singer brought two pre-teen kids on stage at one point and let them play a song.  One kid played guitar and one kid played bass, the Murphy's Law singer sang lyrics that he made up as the song progressed and the Murphy's Law drummer played drums.  Suprisingly, for two kids that were both under four feet tall, they played some great hardcore.  One girl came with Murphy's Law written on her breasts and showcased her ability to write on her own breasts several times.  The singer started of the set by showing the audience her breasts and noting that the difference between NYC and California is that in NYC the breasts are real.

While the pit was pretty good for Murphy's Law it seems that just as many people came out to see Agnostic Front as did Murphy's Law.  At one point the pit for Murphy's Law extended almost back to the bar of Coney Island High.  Needless to say I skipped work today and have been using a cane - which I actually acquired as the result of a knee injury during a Ramones show in 1992 - to walk around.

Murphy's Law non-set list contained at least the following songs:

• Murphy's Law
• Sit Home & Rot
• Fun
• Beer
• Crucial BBQ
• A Day In The Life
• Care Bear (dedicated to The Trench Coat Mafia) - almost played this song twice until someone reminded the singer that they had already played it, but I think if a song is good you can still play it twice.  When I saw Neil Young in 1989 he played Rockin’ In the Free World twice.
• Panty Raid
• Cavity Creeps
• Ska Song/Skinhead Girl (dedicated to the skinhead girl with 3 kids)
• Quest For Herb
• Secret Agent Skinhead
• Bong
• Sarasota
• Shut Up
• Greenbud
• Stay Gold
• My Generation (origanlly by The Who)
• Someone Is Going To Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight (originally by Fleetwood Mack, but a cover of The Rezillo's version)
• plus a few new songs and one song by the pre-teenagers

Worth the $13 dollars?  Probably not.  Worth busting my right foot, left hand and the right side of my face?  Probably not.  Worth missing a day of work?  Probably not.  Were 2 Murphy's Law work-shirts worth the $20 I paid?  Probably not.  Will I miss the next time either of these bands play Coney Island High again?  Probably not.

Yet to come: Avail at Coney Island High 5/22, H2O and Madball at Tramps 5/30.

Check out the following sites for more tour info for a show near you:
www.avail-avail.com
www.h2ogo.com