Happy Passover from Michael and The Circle Jerks!

Greg Hetson, Ben, Lucky Lehrer, Alena, Michael Aushenker at Greenblatt's Deli on Sunset, 4/18/2014

Terrific night out Friday with founding Circle Jerks drummer Lucky Lehrer and guitarist Greg Hetson (also of Bad Religion) after a rare screening of Penelope Spheeris' THE DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION at LACMA (WTF?!?!), at which Greg Hetson was among the panelists.

Here we are at Greenblatt's Deli on Sunset. The dinner conversation was hilariously peppered by background cameos of comedian Paul Rodriguez hauling bags of take-out to the Laugh Factory next door and either Jesus Christ or a guy dressed just like him.( Hey, even a nice Jewish boy like Jesus needs a hot bowl of matzoh ball soup during Passover....)

Here are the Circle Jerks at their most out of control from DECLINE, which Spheeris is aiming soon for a long-awaited DVD release.

What's amazing, as I learned from Lucky and Greg, is that the Jerks had only been together 3-4 months and they were a last minute add-on in DECLINE (perhaps why there's no interview with the group members in the movie). That, in itself....is pretty punk rock!

But the Circle Jerks are on point in DECLINE and gigs like this one at the now-defunct Fleetwood in Redondo Beach anticipated one of the tightest of all albums, GROUP SEX, later that year in 1980.

So cool to see DECLINE on a big screen again! It holds up very well and the panel afterwards was loose and fun. There was even an update on "Eugene" (today he's a folk singer...HAH!)