Fresh in my head since doing this post, I strolled by the Ritz … or, more accurately … Webster Hall of East 11th Street, over the weekend and snapped the photograph above. I’m trying to think of the last time I was actually inside the building, and I think it must have been when I saw the Secret Machines and …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead there in … cripes… 2009. So, yeah, it’s been a minute, but it’s still near and dear to my heart.
In any case, some may remember a post I did back in 2017 wherein I recounted some of my favorite shows there, notably a pair of shows featuring the triple bill of The Toasters, Murphy’s Law and Fishbone in December of 1987. Here’s what I had to say about it in 2017…
My favorite anecdote about The Ritz, however, involves one of a pair of shows in December of 1987, which featured Fishbone, The Toasters and Murphy’s Law. My friend Rob D. and I attended both of these Christmas gigs (hot on the release of Fishbone’s holiday EP, It’s a Wonderful Life), and the room was jam-packed with an army of punks, skinheads, rudeboys, rockers, hardcore kids, college types and all points in between. It was, as they say, the event of the season.
On both nights, each band whipped the capacity crowd up into a complete frenzy, but on the first of the two evenings, I remember being amidst the pit during Murphy’s Law’s frenetic set. The heat coming off the crowd was intense, and the action was nonstop. I managed to weave my pipe-cleaner-like physique through the merry melee to the western side of the room, clinging to the bar as if it was the side of a deep pool. Sweaty and exhausted, I petitioned the bartender -- via a variety of complex hand-signals, given the stentorian din of Murphy’s Law at full throttle -– for a COKE! As if on cue, right as the barkeep was completing my order, lead singer Jimmy Gestapo (a moniker he has since tastefully renounced, truncating to simply “Jimmy G.”) heroically vaulted from the Ritz stage and onto the very bar to which I was leaning. Just as my cup of ice-laden Coca-Cola was put down in front of me, Jimmy started enthusiastically skanking down the bar, with limbs akimbo, flailing in time with the music. Just as I was reaching for my beverage, Jimmy brought his battle-weathered Doc Marten down on my cup with a splattering-STOMP. Fittingly or unwittingly, no soft drinks were going to be consumed on his watch.
Indeed, it was quite an occasion, and while it was over three decades ago, those memories are still quite vivid, for me.
I started sniffing around the internet, recently, looking for any comparable accounts of those shows. I do this periodically, and usually come up empty handed, but I struck oil today.
The first find was an auction site called VNTG Shop, who are selling an original shirt – XL no less – from those shows.
Cool, right? Well, as delightful it would be to own that, VNTG wants $375 for it, so … suffice to say, that’s not happening, for me. If you want to surprise me with a gift, someday, you now have all you need to know and act on.
The second thing I found, meanwhile, was this site, Fishbonelive.org, who hosted photos from the event!!! Here are just a couple...
Murphy's Law...
..and here's Fishbone...
I’m in there somewhere…no shots of the Toasters, sadly.
Tragically, as far as I'm aware, there is no video of either of the two show in question, but here's a little taste of what was on offer.
Here's Murphy's Law at the Ritz, at some indeterminate point. They're opening for someone here (notice the covered drum kit behind the drum kit?), but no idea of when and for whom..
This, meanwhile, is the Toasters circa 1987...
Lastly, this is the mighty Fishbone, as captured around the same era in Tokyo...
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