Every Friday the punk rock geniuses here at Dying Scene are going to unleash a little bit of punk scene trivia all over your asses. Today’s “fun factoid” is about two of the biggest punk bands to come out of the Northern California Bay Area punk scene:
Despite how you feel about either band’s rise to mainstream “success”, there is no denying that both Rancid and Green Day were decidedly influential punk bands to come out of the Bay Area in the early 90’s. Both bands got their start at the legendary 924 Gilman Street venue in Berkeley, often playing together and even collaborating on some song writing. As it turns out, before Green Day released their album Kerplunk, the band’s vocalist Billie Joe Armstrong was asked to officially join Rancid as the second guitar player (this was before Lars Frederiksen joined Rancid). Billie Joe ended up playing a few concerts with the band and even co-wrote Rancid’s classic song Radio, but in the end he decided to stick with Green Day, which was beginning to see some success in the local scene. Imagine what would have happened if Billie Joe would have stuck it out with Rancid. Lars might still be playing with the UK Subs, you might never have heard the song When I Come Around, and Rancid might have a video for their radio hit 21 Guns playing on MTV at this very moment…
Know an interesting story or bit of punk rock trivia? Share it with us here and if we publish it, we just might send you a reward.
Its cool how most everything in the 90’s scene was intertwined.
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