Missiles of October, one of the most...

Missiles of October, one of the most popular rock bands in Laguna Beach, is spearheading a benefit concert to help people whose houses burned in the flames of October.

The day-long show will take place Dec. 4 at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano. Tickets cost $12, with ticket proceeds going to the Laguna Fire Relief Fund.

The preliminary list of performers, with more names expected to be announced, is heavy on musicians who live in Laguna Beach or perform there regularly. The roster includes Missiles of October, Jack Tempchin (most famous for having written the Eagles’ hits, “Peaceful Easy Feeling” and “Already Gone”), Honk members Steve Wood, Beth Fitchet Wood and Richard Stekol, Jodi Siegel, the Cramm Brothers, the Flying Crowbars, Three Blind Mice, the Rounders and the Eliminators.

Poul Finn Pedersen, the Missiles singer who took the initiative in lining up talent for the show, said that he spent the first day of the fire, Oct. 27, helping a friend evacuate his home in the Top of the World neighborhood. The friend, an artist, lost that home to the fire.

“It really just touched me. I’ve lived in Laguna (most of) the past 20 years,” said Pedersen, who now resides in Capistrano Beach. “I know lots of musicians, and I felt the least we could do was get involved and do something. The Coach House has been really great about it.”

Pedersen said that one of the musicians playing the benefit, Mike Canipe of the Flying Crowbars, lost his home in the fire.

The benefit, sponsored by the Coach House in conjunction with the Laguna Presbyterian Church, will start at 2 p.m. and end at midnight. The show is open to all ages. Tickets are available at the Coach House box office and through Ticketmaster. (714) 496-8930. NEW VENUE: The Electric Circus, a new club in Buena Park, has begun to book local grass-roots alternative-rock bands on Fridays and Saturdays.

Owner Allen Ornstein said he hopes gradually to attract bigger bands with label deals to go with rockers from the local scene. The club, at 314 N. Beach Blvd., doubles as a pool hall. It holds 300 people and offers food service as well as a bar.

“We’re just getting it off the ground, seeing what things work the best,” said Ornstein, who in the past has booked youth-oriented entertainment at Knott’s Berry Farm. “We’re not looking to go against the Coach House,” the San Juan Capistrano club that has controlled the Orange County market for club-level touring bands.

Ornstein said that the club has done four concerts so far, averaging 200 to 300 for such local headliners as the Scarecrows, Trip the Spring and the Feel.

“These local bands are great. They get out and hustle and draw a crowd,” Ornstein said. He said the club’s policy is to pay local bands the door proceeds (admission is $2 or $3) while management takes the bar and food income.

Current bookings are: Joyride, Burning Groove, Sone and Bug Skull tonight; the Feel, Nov. 26-27; the Super Naturals (formerly the Scarecrows), Eli Riddle and Barrelhouse, Dec. 3; Room to Roam and Quasimofo, Dec. 4; One Hit Wonder, Dec. 11, and Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys, Dec. 18. All shows start at 9 p.m. (714) 827-1210.

BENEFIT, PART II: The annual Christmas benefit at Linda’s Doll Hut in Anaheim will be a five-show series, including two solo-acoustic performances by Mike Ness of Social Distortion.

Owner Linda Jemison said that this is the 11th consecutive year she has helped promote a holiday benefit involving local rockers--the last five of them at the Doll Hut, 107 S. Adams St.

The benefit shows all start at 8 p.m.; admission for each is $5 or a new unwrapped toy (preferably no war toys or toy weapons). All proceeds will be used to provide holiday gifts for children at the Orangewood Children’s Home for abused children. Information: (714) 533-1286.

The schedule of benefit concerts is as follows:

Dec. 4: I Own the Sky, Smile, Eight Cranial Nerve and Captain Trips.

Dec. 5: Terror Train, Large Hardware, Kiss the Clown and Splinter.

Dec. 10: Mike Ness, Russell Scott and the Red Hots, the Rhythm Lords, the Hyperions and the Sun Demons.

Dec. 11: Mike Ness, El Dorados, Dave and Deke Combo, Delta Ramblers and Cosmic Voodoo.

Dec. 18: Joyride, the Ballistics, Pirates of Venus and What’s Shakin’.

The Lonely Kings, a car club that Ness belongs to, will offer a display of vintage automobiles as part of the festivities on Dec. 10-11.

PALACE EXPANSION: The Hollywood Palace is turning to Coach House booker Ken Phebus to broaden its concert offerings and, as general manager Bruce Ronty puts it, “return the Palace to its glory days.”

Starting with a New Year’s Eve concert by either Boy George and Deborah Harry or Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Phebus will add the Palace booking duties to his three other standing assignments as a concert booker: for the Coach House, which he has booked the past eight years, for its sister club, the Ventura Theatre, and for the Strand in Redondo Beach. He will continue to work out of an office at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano.

Goldenvoice Presents will continue to book its specialty, punk-influenced alternative rock, at the 1,100-capacity Palace, where it averages about fiveconcerts each month.

Phebus’s mandate is to bring in a wider selection of high-profile acts, ranging from jazz to pop and rock. For some shows, the Palace will become a dinner theater with table service, duplicating the formula of the three other venues Phebus books.

“The Palace was once one of the greatest venues in the world,” said Ronty. “Anybody that’s anybody played at the Palace in the ‘50s and ‘60s. We’re looking to go to more high-caliber acts, and have something for everyone.”

Phebus, 46, said that a newly upgraded sound system at the Palace, a 1920s-vintage theater with a high ceiling and a balcony, should help him land talent as he competes against bookers for the Wiltern Theatre, the Roxy and the Henry Fonda Theatre.

“If I’ve heard a complaint about the Palace, it’s the sound,” he said. “It’s great they’re investing the money in the sound system. It makes my job easier.”

Phebus said that he currently books a combined average of about 36 concerts a month for the Coach House, the Ventura Theatre and the Strand. He expects to book four to eight concerts a month for the Palace.