brian mccann jr's blog: the night I got to meet lars frederiksen (rancid, the bastards, old firm casuals)

i live in san francisco now so i see him all the time but a long long time ago I was a kid growing up in a small rural village in Ireland, and if you ever told me back than that i'd do half the things i've done in the last few years i would have never believed you. but all that stuff is for another post. going back to this, and in relation. I never thought i'd ever meet him. I spent my days in secondary school in dunmore, co. galway writing LARS across one pair of knuckles and PUNX across the other. my school books were always covered in band logos and all i wanted to do when i busted out of their is play in bands and see shows and have fun. wich is basically what I am doing now. and I know anything I havent done yet, I will. and thats a pretty confident thing to say, but i dont say it with any kind of cocky asshole-ness, i say it with the belief that anything is possible, and alot of that belief started after this amazing and exciting night in 2005.

so my brother seen that lars and the bastards were coming to dublin, it was huge for all of us. we booked tickets straight away and i booked time off work. at that time i was working and in college and my brothers were all in school. i remember getting dressed that morning and waiting for my parents to honk their horn and pick me up. so i picked out my favorite rancid shirt (yeah i was that guy, i still am) and ran to my parents packed van. off to dublin we go. i dont know much about driving or streets or highways but it took way longer to get to dublin from galway back than.

finally, we got to dublin, as soon as we got there me and brothers were so excited we just wanted to get out of the van and run straight to the venue. in our minds there was that chance lars or one of the bastards were around or the other chance of an early line we wanted to beat. and on top of that we just wanted out of that subway wrapper infested van.

so were outside and my parents are looking for parking. me and two brothers are there, im like just 19 and their younger than me. outside the venue right on temple bar and were just sort of hanging out, theres a few other punk looking kids so at least we know were in the right place. it was really only like 20 minutes before the front door of the music theatre swings open and Lars Fucking Frederiksen comes walking out of there and crosses the street to nearby internet cafe. I remember clearly he was wearing all white and had long blonde spikes and patches everywhere. I was so young and new to the punk scene even the way he was dressed made me kinda go wow in my chest cause for real, he was probaly the most alternatively dressed person i've met up to that point. never mind what he was wearing though it was fucking lars. so we all just kinda stod like leaves and i couldnt open my mouth to say hi.

me and family and friends now outside of the internet cafe thinking thinking thinking.... what should we do. we cant just pounce on him when he comes out. hmmm.. than it hit me. just before this show the LFATB album viking came out and in the inlay it shows him opening a sticker covered fridge. so i wanted to get him a sticker or a magnet to add. quickly, I ran to an irish shop of the road from there and picked up a guinness magnet. Quickly i ran back and continued waiting. about 5 minutes later Lars came out and as he was walking out of there I just went behind and said nervously "Lars..." he turned around right away and we got talking. he loved the magnet. my parents and everybody came over and got talking than and it was great. we spoke for about 20 minutes than Lars had to go and as he walked back to the venue Gordy Carbone and Big Jay Bastard came out. It was great. We got everything signed and lots of pictures. the rest of the night was amazing. Tigar Army played a great show and the bastards were incredible. there ya go a little insight to the first time i ever met lars.

brian mccann jr.