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MONDAY

America’s greatest postpunkers asked, “Do You Want New Wave or Do You Want the Truth?”; said their band could be your life; and played jazz and got away with it. They sang about ice machines and Michael Jackson and Joe McCarthy’s ghost, but mostly they sang about how it felt to grow up working-class and discover punk rock and live with eyes wide open during the Reagan years in a country that—some things never change—was busy murdering innocents abroad. They didn’t look like much. Their takes on Van Halen and Blue Oyster Cult showed them to have the best cover sense this side of Killdozer. And though the 1985 death of guitarist/vocalist D. Boon put an untimely end to their tour spiel, in We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen, the trio from Pedro has finally gotten the documentary treatment it deserves. So be sure to attend the screening at the Black Cat, and don’t forget to jeer Rollins—just as the audience did at the film’s San Pedro premiere. The film screens as a benefit for a project for disabled children in the Gaza Strip at 9 p.m. on the Black Cat’s Backstage, 1811 14th St. NW. $5. (202) 667-7960. (Michael Little)