Rancid

with The Queers at Axis
by Jordan Atkins
photo by Dya Khalsa

With a blistering “Let’s Go!”, Rancid slammed their way through Boston on Wednesday, September 21st, leaving fans with either a twelve foot smile or a hurt back. I was the latter, because Axis let about 50 more people in than the small club could handle. Rancid made up for the discomfort by putting on a high energy show full of surprises. They started their set by playing their harmonized “Radio,” the second track of their sophomore Epitaph Records release, Let’s Go. The new album has been getting rave reviews in and out of the punk scene, and the band has done nothing but augment those opinions at their shows. Throughout the show, they intertwined songs from their first self-titled album and their latest release. “Sidekick,” with its fast-paced melody and fuel-charged guitars, was definitely one of the highlights.

Halfway through the set, Brett Guerowitz, former guitarist for Bad Religion and owner of Epitaph Records, showed up to watch his new investment from the side of the stage. Rancid proceeded to blast into a bass-pounding “Detroit” that then swung into “Black and Blue.” They held nothing back and kept the pace up. Guitarist Lars Frederikson played an out-of-place ballad that caught the crowd off guard until the rest of the band exploded into the song, bringing everyone into a feverish frenzy. Towards the end of the show, lead singer/guitarist Lint pulled an “I’m going to smash my guitar into this amp” trip; when he didn’t, he became fodder for the crowd’s wimp list. He reacted to their taunts with a smile and started up a three song encore including “Hyena,” off their first album.

The hardest thing to understand about Rancid is that they look like The Exploited (the old English anarchist punk band) with their spiked mohawks and leather jackets decorated with chains, and at the same time, they have a definite pop punk sound. With that sort of appearance, it’s hard to imagine them singing “Never fell in love until I fell in love with you. Never knew what a good time was until I had a good time with you.” Nevertheless, Rancid played to a tightly packed room with reckless abandon, spewing out song after song with little time for breathing. But no matter how good Rancid was, this review cannot be complete without mentioning The Queers. That four piece made the show. But I’ll save that for another day.

Be prepared to find three or four more tracks released from Let’s Go later this year. If you already have it, look for it as an individual 7″ EP and catch a show before the end of the tour.