Dad Punk: Circle Jerks Still Running Wild

Dad Punk: Circle Jerks Still Running Wild 

As a teenager growing up just outside Boston, the Circle Jerks were my baptism into live punk rock in a show at The Channel in 1983 with local hardcore heroes Gang Green. Hooked on the art form from jump street, the slam-dancing pit became a place a kid like me could get lost for a few hours on Sunday afternoons. The kids from Hermosa Beach with Keith Morris on vocals and Greg Hetson on guitar were the punk band I saw the most in my youth. 

On March 5, 2022, at the cavernous Showbox Sodo, the Circle Jerks headlined a three-act bill with fellow 80s punk stalwarts Adolescents and Negative Approach. I attended with friends in their 50s and 60s. About the half the crowd were punk rock old guys like us and the term “Dad Punk” came to mind. But I also noticed many younger faces sporting t-shirts of the bands playing and other groups from the 80s and that gave this aging punk fan some hope for the future. 

Detroit’s Negative Approach opened the affair with a blistering set with little fanfare or interaction with the crowd beside the occasion sneer or subdued smile of vocalist John Brannon whose piercing screams and intensity took the studio tracks from their iconic 7-inch and Tied Down album to a more dangerous and primal level. Quick hardcore numbers like Fair Warning and Ready to Fight from the 7-inch were interspersed with longer metal-core songs like Evacuate from Tied Down. 

The highlight of NA’s set was “Nothing” – a nihilistic screed that appeared on the both the single and album—with the latter version having a more metal sound. I saw NA in 1984 in Boston and they sounded amazing all these years later. I was in the pit for the entire set.

Orange County’s Adolescents played next and opened with “No Way” from their eponymous first album, which has become a bonafide punk rock classic. Their closest song to a hit single was “Kids of the Black Hole” and it was my favorite of the set. I watched half of the set up at the bar with friends and then worked my way to the front row during the performance, so I’d be in pole position for the Circle Jerks who were the primary reason I was putting my 55 year old body on the line that evening. 

After an interlude between bands, the Circle Jerks—consisting of original members Keith Morris on vocals and Greg Hetson on guitar along with Zander Schloss (who joined the band in 1985) and drummer Joey Castillo—took the stage and transported their fans to a time and place remembered. With three great bands, it had a mini Punk Rock Bowling feel and major punk rock nostalgia aura to it. 

The show, which was supposed to be the 40th anniversary of their masterpiece Group Sex, was delayed two years by the pandemic and the set was a potpourri of songs from their six studio albums. Among my favorites were Under the Gun, Back Against the Wall, and the rousing Soft Boys cover I Wanna Destroy You who they once sang with 80s pop star Debbie Gibson. 

Keith Morris talked to the crowd between songs and admonished one fan for yelling something indecipherable and stated that they (the Circle Jerks) have been around long enough where they neither need to follow nor frankly care about the “punk rock playbook” – an idea where punks label what is and what is not punk and something that Morris and crew have always rallied against. Hetson, who also plays in Bad Religion, looked comfortable on stage and sported a Creem Magazine t-shirt, which transported this fan back to the 80s.

It was a great show, and all three bands of the Dad Punk genre delivered the goods. The Circle Jerks will be back for leg two of this tour in July with Negative Approach and 7 Seconds and we’ll be there.