The energy at College Street Music Hall was potent when the legendary hardcore punk band Circle Jerks performed on April 7.

The show started with sets from two other iconic hardcore punk bands from the 80s with Negative Approach and Gorilla Biscuits, who both put on quick sets that did well to really set the tone for the show and get the energy up in the crowd. The audience was made up of a diverse blend of longtime listeners who grew up with these bands in the ’80s and a newer generation of younger fans.

The energy reached its peak when Circle Jerks took stage. They performed their set by doing chunks of in-your-face non-stop high energy sprints of hardcore music broken up by breaks where singer Keith Morris would go on long rants or tangents about anything from punk rock history to politics or even just complaining about the cold weather.

Morris also took some time to acknowledge how many of the songs that they wrote back in the 80s are still so relevant today. Morris was a very engaging and entertaining frontman switching back and forth between his intense energy during songs and his witty rants.

For a band made up of guys in their 60s, they are still full of enthusiasm and put on a very energetic performance. The stage setup was very basic and there weren’t any crazy lightshows that you see at so many shows now. It was somewhat basic lighting and no crazy visuals just raw hardcore punk, exactly what you expect from the band.

The band also has not lost any of their sound over the years and Morris’s vocals sounded like they were straight off the records. The current lineup includes founding members in Morris on vocals and Greg Hetson on guitar, with Zander Schloss on bass and Joey Castillo on drums.

The setlist covered the band’s entire career, as well as a stretch of four covers of Black Flag in a row. They played all their big hits like “Wild in the Streets,” “Live Fast Die Young” and “World up My Ass” as well as some deeper cuts like “I, I & I.” The set was about 30 songs long but only lasted around an hour as the energy was non-stop, like driving down a highway of hardcore punk.

They ended their set with their song “Question Authority” which felt like a fitting end to the night as it perfectly sums up the bands message during the show, leaving the audience with a song that urges them so go out and do exactly what the title suggests.