The Circus Tents

The Circus Tents were a band active from 1989 to 1993 from Grass Valley, California. It consisted of Matt Wedgley as the lead vocalist, Jon Sortland on drums, Chad Cox on bass, Scot Pickering and Jeff Jones on guitar. They released a 12 song self-titled cassette tape in 1990 (only 100 copies being made) and a 4 song 7" record titled Hard Up on Insurrection Records in 1992 (only having 1,000 copies made). They had a couple of songs featured on early Powell Peralta skate videos for Chris Senn. They reached international fame when Billie Joe Armstrong put a Circus Tents sticker on his guitar and AFI covered their song "Open Your Eyes" on their record Answer That and Stay Fashionable. The Circus Tents also recorded the song "I Hate Cops" by The Authorities for an unreleased tribute album to The Authorities, which also featured the bands Screeching Weasel and The Meatmen.