Circle Jerks live at the Commodore 2025: backstage with Bob

Keith Morris by Bob Hanham, not to be reused without permission

All photos not identified as Bob's are by me!

It was a night beset with technical difficulties. The opening fiasco during the Circle Jerks' set which saw major repairs to Joey Castillo's drum kit dragged on long enough that Zander started playing the Jeopardy theme on his bass. It was not the only technical difficulty of the night: the old-school laptop being used for merch refused to read every third card it was presented. Elements of fiasco!

We did not care, Bob and I. We got to hang out backstage (in one of multiple upstairs rooms) with Keith Morris, who was chattier and more conversational than either of us expected, mostly recommending movies to us off the Eternal Family streaming service. He's watched Shaolin vs. Evil Dead multiple times; Bob and I have not seen it once. I told him about giving tentacle porn to Lemmy Kilmister, who Keith had hung out with occasionally. He showed me trailers for some screwed-up seeming European SF the likes of which I have not encountered -- lowbrow but ambitious, occupying a space somewhere between Jodorowsky and Brides of Blood, between The Wizard of Oz and Parajanov. Or something: it's cinema I have not seen, beyond trailers, like the 1990 Latvian film Maija and Paija: what? Or try Ruslan and Ludmila. I have never heard of these films, but I'm very, very curious. 

Keith and I by Bob Hanham

Keith signed everything I brought and accepted some gifts. We talked about Bev Davies -- I showed him some of her photos (she's been in the hospital with pains in her side and shoulder) and clarified that when she shot him in 1981, she had followed D.O.A. down south. We joked about whether she slept in the van with them. 

"I don't know if she ever did that, but she did tell me about sleeping on their laundry once." 

We all laughed about what that might have been like. Later in the night I would buy her a Circle Jerks air freshener (she'd hoped for a lighter, but we didn't have one). One wonders who would want a car that smelled like Skank Man. 

Actually, Johnny Matter, who I'd helped with a comp, bought that for her. I tried to take a photo but it didn't work. The merch area was also beset with technical difficulties, with every second bank card seeming not to go through. 

Keith was amazingly friendly and approachable, if more interested in talking about cult movies than punk rock. I didn't take notes -- he didn't want to do an interview just then, so I left the recorder off and we just hung out. He clarified, when I got him to sing the "When the Shit Hits the Fan" 7", that Chuck is not on that at all; he is ONLY recorded in the actual movie. 

People kept popping in to press him to get the setlist done. He eventually cleared us out. It was 31 songs long, apparently, and despite various pauses to repair the drum kit and such, they played every one of them. 

I definitely want to ask Keith about "I, I and I" -- a song co-written by Chris D. and Tito Larriva. It delights me that it has been played every time I've seen them. 

Anyhow, eventually he cleared us out so he could get to work, but we were up there for a good half hour, chatting. GANG! was playing by that point, a band I know nothing about, who played hip-hop inflected punk while wearing menacing neon ski masks. I couldn't entirely figure them out. They seemed to have a very strange song about stalking Tony Hawk. I couldn't quite put it together, but I did snap a photo of Bob snapping a photo of them. Bob is having computer issues so many of his photos will remain unseen until they are resolved... though he did contribute a few that he took on his cell phone, which are what you see. There are better ones!

GANG! were quite unique, if not entirely my sorta thing. 

Later in the night, I saw someone in one of the green masks and asked, ha ha, if he was "gang affiliated," but he was just some audience member. He explained that they had thrown their masks out into the audience at the end of the set, so he picked one up and put it on. I'm not sure anyone actually got to see the band's faces. 

Despite GANG!s earnest efforts, the mask prize of the night went to this guy, right up front for the whole CJ's set, never once taking off his mask. 

One nice thing: every copy of Keith's autobiography was apparently signed. The one I picked up certainly was. I asked Keith to sign it and he flipped it open and showed me.

He told me about Greg Hetson and Chuck Biscuits falling out in the thing I did for the Straight, but he didn't tell all the details. Bob, who has actually read the book, said that Hetson kicked Biscuits in the balls! 

Mellow Friesen was there and talked about reunited with her band the Bombshells for this year's Bowie Ball, which is going to be quite different for her: her projects for that -- often the highlight of the night -- with Mel's Rock Pile are entirely driven around the Bowie Ball; the band has no existence of identity beside that, so she is conceptually free to evoke Bowie how she will. This year will be more challenging, because the Bombshells are actually her band, and DO have a pre-existing sound (which I know nothing of, never saw them). 

I confess to not paying close attention to the Adolescents. I like the blue album a lot, but I didn't know much of what they played... and then they covered the Subhumans' "Fuck You." I told Tony Reflex that I knew Gerry and would let him know that I would make sure he knew that the song got played. It was real good! It was the second to last song on their set, followed by the stellar track of the blue album, "Kids of the Black Hole." I perked up for that one. 

Adolescents by Bob Hanham

Tony Reflex by Bob Hanham: I gave him an upgrade on his Sharpie and he posed with it.

I made a couple of runs on the merch table. I liked this guy's 1984 Circle Jerks shirt the best -- the style actually reminds me of vintage underground-comic era Corben, but I doubt that is the artist. He said he got the shirt the first time he was the band, back in 1984!

I had only been backstage at the Commodore once before, to get stuff signed by the Dougless Doug and the Slugs. I have never watched a show from the wings. This time, I did. Bob, Mellow, Chris Crud, and later, Tony Reflex himself. It was real fun. 

Especially fun was trying to get some expressive audience shots. Bob probably has better ones! These are mine.

It was a powerful set -- the first of their short tour -- with the only surprise (for me) being the inclusion of two Black Flag songs; "Nervous Breakdown," of course, but also "Revenge." 

But I have nothing exciting to say. Nice to see a few people I know, like Ty Stranglehold. Greg had not manifested when we were backstage, but as he came off the stage, I hailed him and he came over and signed my three CJ's LPs (but I didn't dig out all my stuff -- I'd gotten Keith to sign my Repo Man soundtrack but I was standing in between Greg and his chilling, so I just got three albums signed.

There was no encore. I've heard that the show wasn't well-attended, but the people there had fun. Bob and I too! 

And I got a Group Sex shirt. I mean, do you figure people out of the punk loop will know that a shirt with both "Circle Jerks" and "Group Sex" on it is a reference to music, or will they just think I'm kinky?