Youth Run Amosh

"I grew up with the Circle Jerks, but I never got to see them. Finally, I got to," says Erik, who was at the band's January 5 House of Blues show. Erik, well over 21, saw the band from the first floor; those under 21 had to view the band from upstairs, away from the bar and mosh pit.

"Even the singer was bummed out," says Eric about Circle Jerks frontman Keith Morris. "He talked about it on stage. He wanted the kids down there. This was a punk show....

"Towards the end of the show, I look over and I see kids running down the stairs towards the front of the stage. They rushed the mosh pit. The security immediately closed down the bar. I saw them throw [three or four] kids out of there."

House of Blues general manager Michael Grozier did not respond to a request for comment.

Keith Morris says, "We've played at the House of Blues San Diego at least three times and we've never seen that happen before. Maybe this is some new policy they have. Unfortunately they didn't point it out to us in advance or we would have requested to play somewhere else."

One local insider who has dealt with the 29-year-old band before, says, "The band likes to think the kids are still into them, but 80 percent of the people who go to see old-school punk bands are over 30 years old. That's why they play places like the House of Blues. I don't think they should have made this an all-age show with alcohol. I think they should have chosen one or the other."

Morris says he received emails from some of the local underage fans who were not against getting "herded" into an underage area. "They were just happy to be there. They will put up with some of that."