I went to see Rancid on Thursday, October 22, 1998. It was probably the best concert I have ever been to. I remember when I first heard Rancid was coming. I was in 2nd hour Spanish class and I think my friend Kristen was listening to head phones on the radio to Rancid or I was singing a Rancid song or something... and she asked me if I was going to see them. "What?? When?" I immediately asked for a pass to the office... to call my dad on a "personal matter." Sometimes the secretaries at my school ask you what you need to use the telephones for before you call. I was asked... I just told her the truth. She giggled and said something along the lines of I understand and I called my dad and told him about it. The next day, we went and got tickets.
But my dad wasn't going to get tickets at first because it was on a Thursday. I begged him to let me go, I told him I could use my day (I am allowed 1 day a year to stay home and do whatever) and he could take a vacation day. Obviously he let me go...
A few weeks past and Thursday finally came around. I remember at school I was so excited about seeing them. When I got home from school and my Dad got home from work ( around 4, the show started at 7 I think) I was ready to go. We left at about 4:30, went downtown and ate. Then we went and waited outside the nightclub... for two hours so we could get in as one of the first people. We were third in line I think. We were behind a girl who just got her tongue pierced a few hours before, I remember, and her mouth and lips were all swollen and black and blue. She was really nice and funny.
Well, 7 finally came around ( I was so excited I was jumping around and stuff... no music was even playing) I was freaking out. I literally ran inside, bought some t-shirts, and hurried and got my place on the floor right in front of the stage. Then I looked around and their were some extremely large people around. I feared for my life. So I made my way back a few rows of people, and I couldn't see. So FINALLY, I stood on a table thing, I could see well. ( The place wasn't even close to being packed then.)
They played with the Gadjits and Hepcat... some people I am not too fond of but they weren't that bad. Hepcat was very positive stuff... the singer ( cant remember his name) was funny and danced around funny. Hey, it was Rancid. I didn't care about the warm-up bands much anyway. It was Rancid!!!
Then Rancid came out. Lars had a beautiful ORANGE (my favorite color) Mohawk and Tim wore a hat... I think Brett and Matt wore white t-shirts... I can't remember. Their first song was Avenues and Alleyways, and that got everyone revved up. They played for about an hour and a half I guess. I could kinda see a clock on the side of the stage that the roadies looked at so they knew how long they had to set up, and I glanced at it every now and then. They even played some of their OLD songs from Rancid.
After the concert, the roadies listened to the Dead Kennedys Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables. I remember when I heard the first few words to Kill the Poor I screamed and started singing along. No one else hardly knew who it was... sigh. But that's ok, like I said before. People need to have things for themselves. My dad and I got home around 1 ( we took a wrong turn and went to White Castle on the way home). I woke up at about 6 in the morning and was still excited and couldn't go back to sleep so I hurriedly got up and stuff and went to school... still excited. It was fun.
