Rancid

If those kiddies were anything like me at that age, coming to a Rancid show means being among peers who don’t judge you for singing out of key or out of turn. You come to dance/mosh when most other rock shows are head-nod-inducing snoozefests. You come to intone “Oi, Oi, Oi” drunkenly and then hoist a clenched fist in the air for reasons you can’t explain. Most of all, you come to gaze at the indomitable Tim Armstrong, who for every young fan, mohawked or not, is a reason to believe: a good-guy punk who went from Berkeley rags to LA riches without selling out.

Sure, in righteous, punker-than-thou minds he’s been guilty of a few transgressions — collaborating with Pink, hanging out in the “Fall Back Down” video with one of the Good Charlotte twins and Kelly Osbourne. But all was forgiven when he hit the stage Tuesday and launched into the Operation Ivy–inspired “Journey to the End of the East Bay” in his trademark top hat and leather jacket. Platinum-blond-haired rabble-rousing Lars Frederiksen by his side, Tim slurred and sullied his verses. No matter. We all knew the words: “Started in ’87 ended in ’89/Got a garage or an amp we’ll play anytime/It was just the four of us/ Yeah man the core of us/Too much attention unavoidably destroyed us.”

It was an apt start. After all, the boys had made a Web-site promise to include Op Ivy covers on this tour, a clever marketing move for a band without a new album — especially when you consider all of the new listeners (me included) that the former band of Armstrong and bassist Matt Freeman acquired during the ’90s. Unfortunately, they got around to only two on Tuesday — the lesser-known protest track “Big City,” on which Lars sang, and a stripped-down acoustic version of “Knowledge” in the first half of the encore. I felt a bit betrayed. Then they launched into another Rancid track from And Out Come the Wolves and I dove into the swarm, pen and pad in hand, free fist skyward.

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