While everyone is busy watching the fucking Grammys for some insane reason I am going to be posting photos of a band that while probably hasn’t written a new song in a decade is deserving of whatever Grammy they give out for pouring beer on their fans.  If that is not a category it probably should be.

When I went to the Philly Tattoo Convention I had no idea that Murphy’s Law was going to be there. I was pretty fucking psyched when I saw their name on the schedule. They were one of my favorite bands when I was an angry punk rock youth.  I probably saw them a half dozen times in the 90’s but I haven’t seen them since.  I still listen to their music though. I just had one of their CD’s in the car that I was borrowing a few months ago. The point is that even if I am way to old to get in a circle pit I still love this fucking band.  Serious New York hardcore that is as fun as it kicks ass. Also, Murphy’s Law’s front man Jimmy Gestapo is one of the owners of NYHC Tattoo on the Lower East Side which I just won a $100 gift certificate to at one of the fundraisers for Jessie Lee.  Clearly it is fate that I would get to finally see Murphy’s Law again…

As I mentioned I have seen Murphy’s Law a bunch of times and they were always fucking amazing. Their shows were crazy and violent and distinctly remember knocking some guy out with an elbow at one of their shows when he was trying to hurt people in the pit. Any time you get a band that has a huge punk, hardcore and skin following it always got a bit rough.  Still, they were so fun and didn’t take themselves nearly as serious as the other hardcore bands I was listening to back then so seeing them was always just a really good time. They would pass out beers and smoke weed with the crowd and even for a straight edge kid like myself it was always a great show.

I had a feeling though, that this show at the tattoo convention was not going to live up to their normal standards.  The show took place in a fluorescently lit room surrounded by people tattooing and people selling tattoo related stuff from little cubicles. The crowd was clearly not there to see Murphy’s Law although they had about 20 serious fans standing in front of the stage. But a lot of these fans were my age and older and I was pretty free to take pictures without worrying about getting my camera smashed.  And although I was enjoying taking pictures I was pretty disappointed in the vibe.

Slowly that started to change.  More and more fans gathered and as they played their hit songs the area in front of the stage really started moving.  A decent pit started moving and this girl decided to flash the band and the crowd and started making out with people.  Beers got passed around, bottles of Jager started being chugged and people started getting loose.  As the show got better shit started getting weirder.  Jimmy got off stage and got onto the mechanical bull for an entire song.  When he got back on stage a man in a giant zombie Gumby costume was waiting for him.  Soon a guy dressed as bloody bunny joined them on the stage.  Half naked Bombshell Brats and burlesque dancers got on stage.  The band was fucking losing it with all this weirdness going on.  The crowd got more and more into it and realized some shit like this could only happen in a brightly lit hotel conference room.  People started climbing the make-shift scaffolding they had set up for the suspension show and people started jumping on stage.

By the last song the place was just chaos. Half the crowd was on stage singing along.  It ended up being maybe on of the best Murphy’s Law shows I have ever seen and I would venture to guess one of the weirdest of all time.  A lot of the photos I took sucked. My flash was suffering a bit because I had taken more than 1000 photos that day and the fluorescent light made it nearly impossibly hard to make the show look any good from a photography standpoint. That being said I think these photos give you a pretty good idea of how insane the show was and there are a few quality shots in here somewhere. Also these photos are not safe for work which is a weird thing to say about live band shots, but it’s not every day that a band headlines a burlesque show.

Anyway, this write up as gotten a bit long and rambely so I am going to shut the fuck up now.  Just understand that urphy’s Law are fucking awesome and this show was completely fucking bizarre. Oh yeah and fucking click here already to see all the pictures of Murphy’s Law at the 2011 Philadelphia Tattoo Convention.

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