Punk Rocker Jello Biafra Hits the Road, Re-Enacts Trial on Pornography Charges

Fifteen months after a Los Angeles judge dismissed pornography charges against Jello Biafra, the San Francisco-based punk rock artist is re-enacting his 2-week trial in a cross-country tour of college campuses and concert halls.

Earlier this month, the former Dead Kennedys lead singer touched down in a packed Long Beach music club, where his spoken-word performance was taped for a record album he plans to release next year. It will be titled “High Priest of Harmful Matter--Tales From the Trial.”

Blending comedy, poetry and political diatribe, Biafra, as is his wont, refused to mince words. America’s religious and political right-wingers, he warned, are spearheading an ongoing conspiracy to censor rock music and progressive political thought. And Deputy City Atty. Michael Guarino, Biafra added with a snicker, is among the spear carriers. “Guarino was so moral. He was going to save America’s children.”

Biafra was prosecuted by Guarino on charges of distributing harmful material to minors for inserting a graphic poster in copies of the now-defunct Dead Kennedys’ 1985 “Frankenchrist” album. The poster, a reproduction of a surrealistic painting titled “Penile Landscape” by Academy Award-winning Swiss artist H.R. Giger, depicts 10 sets of male and female genitals engaged in sexual acts.

In Biafra’s 4-hour stage performance, the one-time defendant acted as judge and jury--as well as prosecutor, defense counsel and bailiff--while detailing the history of his Municipal Court case, dismissed after a jury would up deadlocked 7-5 in favor of acquittal.

The 200-person audience at Bogart’s paid rapt attention to Biafra. It wasn’t always easy, considering that the energetic but long-winded Biafra did not wrap things up until 1:57 a.m.--after three pleas from the club’s management.

In an interview the day before the show, Biafra reflected on the impact of his court case.

“I haven’t really had time to get back to singing yet,” he said. “After the trial, I hit the road doing college speaking engagements and it took off to a degree I never expected.

“The scary part is that I could probably, if I wanted to, run around doing this for 20 years without updating my material at all. After all, how do you think the Watergate criminals got so damn rich?”

Biafra, who has headlined halls from Alabama to upstate New York, said his typical audience includes “Dead Kennedys fans who were interested in the words, plus civil libertarians, plus college students who like to go to lectures, plus people on campuses and in small towns who have nothing else to do that night.”

Describing himself as “just another guy with a big mouth,” Biafra, who once ran for mayor of San Francisco, reflected that his trial was merely one pitched battle in a protracted war.

“A lot of chain record stores have blackballed our albums, even after the trial,” said the author of such punk anthems as “California Uber Alles” and “Religious Vomit.”