Why the Quakes are the most punk rock team in MLS | HEINEKEN RIVALRY WEEK
  • 7 years ago
Lars Frederiksen’s fronted some of the most popular punk bands of the last couple of decades – Rancid, most famously, as well as other acts like the Old Firm Casuals. And through it all, he’s also repped as a diehard San Jose Earthquakes fan, a team with whom he fell in love when he moved to the city as a child from his family’s native Denmark.But over the years, he decided that his team of choice (besides England’s Millwall, his other love) really needed an official anthem suiting the Quakes’ punk-rock ethos. So who else better than to pen one than Lars, season ticket-holder and a true bard of Bay Area punk rock?So he gifted the Quakes with an Old Firm Casuals creation, “Never Say Die,” the team’s official anthem that rocks the stadium before every match.MLSsoccer's Arielle Castillo caught up with Lars at his home – and his basement shrine to all things soccer and Rancid – to find out how his love affair with the Quakes started, how the song came about.Oh yeah, we also had to ask about how he deals with intra-Rancid MLS banter – their drummer, Branden Steineckert, wrote “Believe,” the anthem of Real Salt Lake. Here’s Lars had to say.