The other night, Rancid kicked off their summer tour at the Rialto Theater in Tucson. I'll leave my intro short and just get into it.

When I walked, in the opening band, local psychobilly outfit the Dead Tones, were halfway through their set. This band is good -- a lot of talent up there. But all the songs sounded similar and I lost interest towards the end. It should be noted, though, that their female drummer can rock the fuck out.

Next on the bill was San Diego's Buck-O-Nine. I'm not a giant BON fan, but i do own Twenty-Eight Teeth and still listen to it occasionally. So naturally I figured I would know more than a few songs. Apparently, I was wrong. They stared off great with "I'm Not Dead" from their new album and really got the crowd going. After that I didn't recognize any other songs until they played a kickass cover of Musical Youth's "Pass the Dutchie" with their trumpet player (yes, a black dude) taking lead vocals...thank God, too, because this guy did awesome. The only other songs I knew were "My Town" and "Irish Drinking Song." Overall, though, they were tight and sounded good to boot. Considering this band released their newest record after a 10-year hiatus, they still got it.

Now it was time, time for the band we'd all come to see, RANCID. So after about a half-hour of setup, an odd little intro on the projection screen behind them started playing. It mainly featured rapidly moving clips from the `30s and `40s and different Rancid logos appearing at random. Then the band started to slowly come out, like they're about ready to rock and they open with..."Fall Back Down"? WTF? I know it's a catchy song, but I think for the first show of their first tour in at least a year they could at least open with "Radio," or at the very least "Ruby Soho." Either way, it got the crowd going and I was right there with them, tapping my foot and shaking my leg in the Joe Strummer way.

They played very well overall, and Lars has the most energy by far. They blasted through a few ...AOCTW tunes, then played a song that kinda surprised me: "Tattoo." I wasn't expecting a B-side to slip its way in there. The night consisted mostly of stuff off ...AOCTW and a few good songs from Life Won't Wait like "Hoover Street" and "Who Would've Thought." The only song they played from the 1993 self-titled was, of course, "Rats in the Hallway." However, they did bust out a nice cover of "Knowledge" and they also played "I Wanna Riot," which I was stoked upon hearing.

Another thing that should be noted is that Rancid has looked exactly like Rancid for the past 10 years. Tim: Fedora hat, black leather jacket, black pants and chucks; Lars: White bondage pants with "Skunx" stenciled on and sleeveless UK Subs tee; and Matt: Black shirt, jeans; I can't really judge Brandon, because he's only a baby Rancid. I know this shouldn't really be an issue, but it just seems like Rancid hasn't grown at all since 1998.

For their encore, Tim came out and played an acoustic version of "The 11th Hour," then the rest came out and finished it off with "Time Bomb" and finally "Ruby Soho." Also during the encore they played a new song from their upcoming record, which, I hate to say, sounded pretty weak.

Overall, it was a good show and it was nice to see the guys still at it with as much energy as they had back in the old days. I wished they had played some deeper cuts, but ya take what ya can get.

Set list (no order whatsoever):

• Fall Back Down
• Roots Radicals
• Tattoo
• Rats in the Hallway
• Maxwell Murder
• Knowledge
• The War's End
• Olympia, WA
• Journey to the End of East Bay
• Old Friend
• I Wanna RIot
• Radio
• Nihilism
• Who Would've Thought
• Hoover St.
• Salvation
• Tenderloin
• Gunshot
• It's Quite Alright
• Antennas
• Black Derby Jacket
Encore (In order):
• The 11th Hour (acoustic)
• Time Bomb
• weak ass new song
• Ruby Soho