Before and After (90’s bands in 2011)

Before (Wednesday August 24, 2011)

It is the day before Blink 182, Rancid, and Against Me play the MTS Centre.

I was excited when I first heard about this show, but now I think paying for this ticket may have been a mistake.

After (Friday August 26, 2011)

Thanks to Winnipeg Transit, and there routes that occasionally stop only a quarter of the way to your destination I missed Against Me entirely, and then thanks to not enough seats being sold my ticket was changed so I had to stand in line and missed the first part of the first song Rancid played.

It was all worth it though as Rancid kicked the crowd’s ass with all the hits, and maybe the best selection of old and new deep tracks I have ever witnessed. Old and new stuff. It is too bad that the crowd was weak, and even prompted the band to switch from Salvation to Bloodclot.

This set blew my mind with tunes like, well three quarters of …And Out Come The Wolves, and tracks so deep Ron Jeremy would have trouble getting to them. I’m talkin St. Mary, Otherside, It’s Quite All Right, and Outta My Mind just to name a few.

Rancid is one of the best punk bands ever to be sure, and they prove that you can fuck up for a long time, and still make it if you dedicated. At least in Lars’ case.

Blink on the other hand was exactly the disappointment I thought they would be. Although they started strong, I think they had some residual Rancid greatness giving me rose coloured glasses, because after about fifteen minutes I had had more than enough of the Blink 182 Trio. I was about ready to go when First Date or whatever it is called came on - I was out of there before a song about getting grounded came on.

But really Rancid stole the show, and is clearly still worth going to see every time they come to town.