The members of Rancid have stayed fairly active with numerous side projects over the last five years, but the band itself had been pretty quiet. 2004 saw the release of "Indestructible" and it wasn't until this year that "Let the Dominoes Fall" finally dropped.
It seems in the meantime the band's status as a legendary punk act hasn't faltered. "Dominoes" charted higher than any previous release at number 11, even higher than Elvis Costello, a man who helped define the genre they rule.
Has it really been 16 years with Rancid? The timeline feels much shorter than that, but there have been undeniable clues to my advancement of age. Between wondering about the meaning of each tattoo of the highly decorated Lars Frederiksen, I'm wondering if they're tax deductible (as a necessary expense towards advancing the band.
At any rate, in support of their release, Rancid stopped by Summerfest. The show seemed to be a very cautious mix between pre-millenial albums and the current disc. Many of the tracks were pulled from the highly succuessful "...And Out Come The Wolves," but the set featured everything from tracks from the very early "Let's Go" to the later hit, "Fall Back Down."
To my surprise, they even played the ultra-violent "Dead Bodies," a track I wasn't terribly sure even had an audience beyond myself. But though the band kept a good pace going, they never threw it in full throttle and even their hardest tracks felt reserved.
I found myself particularly questioning Armstrong's slowest ballad, "Civilian Ways," because the slow tempo track in the middle of an energetic punk set was losing the crowd. Those are the kind of tracks that a band puts on an album to prove they can do them, but nobody wants to hear them live. My friend disagreed, saying that the band had earned the right to play whatever it wanted since they did us a favor by playing all of our favorite songs from years ago. The show is owned by two groups. It belongs to the audience and it also belongs to the artist.
Of course, the next few songs picked up where they had left off and they even delivered a bass solo from Matt Freeman. It's very obvious that the band is in tune with what the audience wants and I'm beginning to think my friend was right. This idea of sharing the music was further punctuated as the set ended with the crowd pleasing "Ruby Soho." During the final chorus, the band dropped out and let the crowd take over for a couple of rounds before picking it back up, thanking the city, and sending the set home.
Jason McDowell grew up in central Iowa and moved to Milwaukee in 2000 to attend the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design.
In 2006 he began working with OnMilwaukee as an advertising designer, but has since taken on a variety of rolls as the Creative Director, tackling all kinds of design problems, from digital to print, advertising to branding, icons to programming.
In 2016 he picked up the 414 Digital Star of the Year award.
Most other times he can be found racing bicycles, playing board games, or petting dogs.
