Rancid played Terminal 5 (pics & setlist), do it again tonight
by Fred Pessaro
Rancid @ T5, 6/21/2013
Celebrating 20 years as a band, Bay area punk favorites Rancid brought their ska-inflected pop songs to Terminal 5 last night (6/20), the first of a sold-out two night stay at the venue. The dates include support from Tim Armstrong side project Transplants, as well as Traditionals. I missed Traditionals entirely and the bulk of the Transplants set, but did manage to catch them covering the Crass classic “Do They Owe Us A Living?,” something that should be outlawed for that band.
The show was a fun trip down memory lane for me, as it had been 15 years since I last saw Rancid in a field in the UK (Reading 1998). This time around was just as good, and fun, as I remembered. Matt Freeman (who, for a short time, I was convinced was the greatest bass player in the world) laid down his signature low-end grooves while Lars’ guitarwork set the foundation for the songs. Tim Armstrong on the other hand, is a beast unto himself. Though he has a guitar strapped around his neck, I highly doubt he is even playing it, instead adding snarl-y obnoxious-ness to their live show and having the entire crowd eat it up. Fun set of old songs I havent heard in many years.
Rancid’s performance leaned heavily on their three earliest offerings, their self-titled debut, Let’s Go and …And Out Come the Wolves, with stops along the way to shout out recent material and even a new song from a forthcoming LP (full set list is below).
The band plays Terminal 5 again tonight (6/21) with Transplants and special guests Crown of Thornz. More pictures from last night are below.
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Transplants
Rancid