Jerks/Weirdos/Monster Preserve Punk at UCLA

Punk rock, widely believed to have died somewhere around the summer of 1978, is still alive and thrashing, and every year another legion of 15-year-olds acquires green Mohawks, eight-eyelet Doc Marten boots and a rebel attitude that seems to be given away free with every pair of shoes. And the music is stronger than ever.

Saturday night at UCLA’s Ackerman Ballroom, three L.A. punk bands played to a young crowd less likely to have seen the Weirdos in their first incarnation 13 years ago than people at the first Weirdos shows were to have attended Woodstock. Circle Jerks, the Weirdos and Thelonious Monster--the classes of ‘80, ’77 and ’84 respectively--proved the vitality of the medium. Of course, a lot of people don’t even consider what these bands do to be punk any more.

The Monster featured a fully sober and alert Bob Forrest, the Bob Seger of the underground. He was swell, his plaintive rasp finely tuned, his speeches to the audience less preachy than they were even a month ago.

The Weirdos sounded cleaner and harder than they were as Whisky headliners all those years ago, John Denney’s voice crisper and more percussive, their songs--many of them familiar from a thousand spins on Rodney--as spare and concise. Although it’s a little ironic that a band whose biggest hit was called “Destroy All Music” has a longevity greater than Led Zeppelin’s, the Weirdos’ anarchic energy remains intact.

The headlining Circle Jerks, in what was advertised as their last show (at least until the next one), provided the not inconsiderable pleasure of seeing a hot, really professional punk rock band at work: impossibly fast tempos; full, powerful drumming; microsecond precision. Keith Morris’ throaty baritone is still the most distinctive of punk voices, and even the chestnuts sounded fresh and new.