Circle Jerks live at the Commodore 2025: backstage with Bob, NOW WITH ADDED AARON CHAPMAN!!!

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 of the Circle Jerks' set 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 friendlier 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, butting into the line and insisting he pay, so I let him. I tried to take a photo of him in the process but it didn't work. In fact the comps were actually provided by Aaron Chapman, whose show it was, and who decided behind the scenes that a half-empty Commodore was a not-so-fun Commodore (tickets had not flown) and took action to fill the venue up. He generously comped a ton of Vancouver's music glitterati into the show  -- so in fact, Johnny, don't thank me, thank Aaron!!! . 

Once I'd secured my merch (and Bob and I chatted with Chappie a bit), 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 sign the "When the Shit Hits the Fan" 7", that Chuck is not on that at all; he is ONLY recorded in the actual movie. I'm not sure the article made that clear?

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

There is a chance of further Q&A stuff between Keith and I. I definitely want to ask him 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 the issue is resolved... though he did contribute a few that he took on his cell phone, which are what you see, interspersed with mine. 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, tho.

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 (I am told his name is Eric and that he comes to shows masked all the time). 

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 -- "it's already signed!" 

He had 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! I've gotta read that part. 

Speaking of inside baseball, Mike has finally convinced me to give Biscuits a break. I still think he really was the party responsible for the hoax, but I think he was probably  just trying, half-assedly, to get Greene to go away. He didn't realize Greene would report it and that he'd inadvertently draw MORE attention to himself, rather than closing the door. If Biscuits would rather people think him dead than talk about his time in showbiz, people should stop hounding him.

I don't usually let Mike win arguments, but looking at it from that perspective, he's right. Let's leave Chuck alone (we miss you, man!). 

Mellow Friesen was there and talked about having 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, but you can hear samples here). 

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 later 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 -- they should have done  "Fuck You" or that one as their opening number, and then shmucks like me would have actually listened more attentively to everything they did!

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. The fella (apparently Chappie's friend Mike Wurm) 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, but it's still pretty new for me, and I have never watched a show from the wings. This time, I did with Bob, Mellow, Chris Crud, and later, Tony Reflex himself. It was real fun. I actually  had initially thought Keith was making fun of media whore mendacity when he offered me backstage access and so forth, but he was actually serious! 

I gave him some real good records, though. I am shocked he didn't have Incorrect Thoughts already! Now he does.

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."  There was also plenty of political commentary between songs -- including a fun lyrical addition. In "Stars and Stripes," for example, instead of "you're all gonna die/ And you voted for that guy" it was something like, "even though YOU didn't vote for that guy," or something like that. Like, we're in the same toilet with the U.S., even though we have no control over what happens down there.

It ain't the first time we've been in that position, Keith! 

But I have nothing exciting to say. Nice to see a few people I know, like Ty Stranglehold, who crossed the pond to the show. Greg had not manifested when we were upstairs, 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 my three actual albums signed.

There was no encore, but everyone had a very fun night. Bob and I too! You'd never know that ticket sales had been pretty weak -- the agenda to fill the room sure worked, so again, if you got comped in, you know who to thank! (It ain't me). 

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?

Thanks again to Aaron Chapman for bein' such a mensch!