Operation Ivy
screenshot of Riot Style's video

Operation Ivy's Jesse Michaels & Tim Armstrong reunited to play "Sound System" in LA (watch)

As the world continues to cross its fingers for a potential Operation Ivy reunion, Jesse Michaels and Lint (aka Tim Armstrong) surprise-reunited to perform their old band’s classic “Sound System” at Musack Rock and Roll Carnival, a backyard charity concert that went down in LA last night (2/5). Tim and members of his pals The Interrupters were there as the backing band for 2 Tone legends The Specials, and as Jesse posted in his Instagram stories, he hopped on stage to do the Op Ivy song right before The Specials went on. (He also posted video of The Specials and wrote “dream come true for me to see The Specials in any form and this squad def rocked.”) Very good quality video of the mini reunion was posted by Riot Style, and as you can hear, they sounded great! Watch for yourself below.

This wasn’t the first time Jesse reunited with other Operation Ivy members; he joined Tim and Matt Freeman to play “Unity” and “Sound System” at one of Rancid’s 2006 shows, he guests on Tim’s solo song “Living In A Dangerous Land,” and he co-wrote a song with Tim for Grade 2’s 2019 album Graveyard Island. Jesse recently said on The Hard Times Podcast he “wouldn’t rule out” an Operation Ivy reunion, but also clarified, “That’s not me hinting that it’s in the works or anything like that,” and drummer Dave Mello said on The Peer Pleasure Podcast, “For me, I’m totally for it. I’d be into it,” but then added, “It’s something the other members don’t need. They have so many other things going on in their lives. It’s not something they’d want to do.” It’s of course very possible that last night’s surprise performance could be just another one-off like the one in 2006, but we’re hoping they finally decide to answer everyone’s prayers and do the reunion. Stay tuned!

Read about Operation Ivy’s 1989 album Energy in our list of all-time essential ska albums.

Update, Musack has released official, pro-shot video of the performance: