Agnostic Front: Old School Originals
w/ Coyote Van Shakedown, Jizzhawks & Coldside
Friday April 26, The 321 Local, Cocoa, Florida
All Pics by M.A. Rivera
Agnostic Front are hardcore. Punk had been around for years by the time these teenagers got it in their heads to start playing. Punk was their primer. Their jumping off point. 
And it was fine for those older guys who hung out with the art crowd in Soho; but they clearly wanted something faster, harder and heavier that they could call their own. As a result, New York’s fabled Hardcore (NYHC) scene evolved.
Fast forward to now. Guitarist Vinnie Stigma and vocalist Roger Miret are going on thirty-one years of performing brutally fast and unforgiving music. Agnostic Front are no nostalgia act, skating by on past accomplishments and simply taking their audience for granted. They are currently as relevant and unflinchingly tough as nails as they ever were.
Taking the stage, the show spanned their entire career, kicking off with “Victim in Pain,” from the same titled 1984 EP. “Blind Justice” and “Dead to Me” kept the full house on edge, but “For My Family,” and “Gotta Go” were positively incendiary.
Stigma and Miret, the Godfathers of the movement, front an exceptional line-up and show no signs of slowing down. With a stubborn doggedness they continue to deliver their take on the world. Delivered one show at a time.
Also on the bill were Coyote Van Shakedown, who started the show and delivered a straight ahead punk set. High energy, balls out and concise. Cocoa’s own, The Jizzhawks are a potent blend of thrash with punk edges. The band is tight and tough, but it’s the exceptional skills of drummer ‘Young Jizzy’ that shine brightest throughout. With shades of prog jazz, and a propensity to show his
chops every chance he gets, this over the top playing tempers the songs character and is what truly makes the band stand apart.
Coldside, recently signed to Strength Records, are supporting Agnostic Front on all their Florida dates. Double vocalists Chewface and Opie helped delivered a memorable show solid hardcore that was by turns animated and agitated.