Back in April, Rancid announced they were moving their London show from the closed Brixton Academy to the twice-as-big Wembley Arena out of necessity, and their social media were bombarded with punk-rocker tantrums. “£43 to watch Rancid sound like they’re in a cave?” one Facebook comment complained. “No thanks!”
Admittedly, as the Berkeley-based rebels play in this 10,000-capacity cavern – with curtains at the back to hide the unsold seats – their anthems don’t boot you in the chest the way they would in some grimy yet intimate basement. But Rancid have always been about more than simply making noise for noise’s sake. Many of their songs are mid-paced tunes that you can dance and swagger to, while the likes of Time Bomb and Tenderloin have legitimate pop prowess: even people who have never heard them before will have those choruses memorised by the end.
