Images: Rancid, The Transplants July 21, 2013 at the House of Blues

Las Vegas gets skipped by a lot of touring bands, but Rancid never fails to make a stop in our desert home. The punk rock mainstays have played here, with very few exceptions, once a year since I started listening to them back in the mid-90s, most recently as headliners of 2012’s Punk Rock Bowling Music Festival. For their 2013 appearance at the House of Blues, the band decided to keep things in the family, with Rancid side-project The Transplants opening up as well as The Interrupters, who are currently signed Tim Armstrong’s Hellcat Records.

LA ska punks The Interrupters were the first to take the stage but due to a delay in getting in, I missed their set. So the first band of the night for me was punk rock supergroup The Transplants. To be perfectly honest – I’ve never been a huge fan of The Transplants, despite being a fan of drummer Travis Barker’s and guitarist/vocalist Tim Armstrong’s past and current projects (Aquabats, Blink-182 and Operation Ivy, Rancid, respectively). I’m not one to be overly critical of unrelatable lyrics – I’ve never fought a shark like The Aquabats or argued the existence of aliens like Blink – but something about lyrics like “Some of my friends sell records, Some of my friends sell drugs” and “back bitch, run for cover, lying snitch, watch you stutter” just never sat well with me.

That being said, The Transplants are a completely different animal live. Barker, of course, is a beast on the drums and getting to see him perform is almost worth the price of admission alone. During “Diamonds and Guns,” Rancid bassist Matt Freeman (accurately introduced by Transplants frontman Skinhead Rob as “the best bass player in the world”) came out to jam and it got me thinking what a group composed of a Freeman/Barker rhythm section would sound like. I’m not huge on the rap/rock-esque songs but tracks like “In a Warzone” that recall 80s hardcore and Rancid’s great, though oft-maligned, 2000 self-titled record were a lot of fun live and got the crowd moving, with people slipping and sliding on the sweat and beer-drenched floor.

When it was time for Rancid to take the stage, the room was completely dark save for one spotlight on Armstrong, who got things started with Let’s Go anthem “Radio.” The Billie Joe Armstrong co-written track was a great way to kick things off, complete with circle-pit inciting chorus and the “When I got the music I got a place to go” refrain that even saw drummer Branden Steineckert (previously of The Used) perched atop the drum stool whipping his hair back and forth (the “place to go” will be a hospital if you slip so be cafe, Branden!!).

Rancid’s set was pretty perfect early on, with “Radio” leading into a quartet of …and Out Come The Wolves tracks – “Roots Radicals” (the first Rancid song I fell in love with), “Journey to the End of the East Bay” (telling the tale of the rise and fall of Operation Ivy), Maxwell Murder (with its killer bass solo) and “The 11th Hour.” The show focused heavily on …Wolves, like most recent Rancid tours do, but it was also fun hearing Indestructible’s “Red Hot Moon” in a setting where the track’s guest vocalist, Skinhead Rob, was actually present to do his part. Reggae-tinged b (and c) side “I Wanna Riot” from the first Punk-O-Rama was a welcome addition, as was Rancid 2000 track “It’s Quite Alright.” Of course it wouldn’t be a proper Rancid review if I didn’t mention Armstrong’s guitar playing, or lack thereof. He gets a lot of grief for basically just letting his oversized guitar dangle around his neck more than actually playing it, but that mostly seems to be because he’s jumping off monitors or focusing on singing, which works for me.

This show was a great look back at Rancid’s catalog, but I have a special request for their next tour. Let’s Go turns 20 next year. Can we please get an anniversary tour for it?

-Emily Matview

Photos by Tyler Newton | http://500px.com/spottedlens