Rancid guitarist Lars Frederiksen collapsed on stage at Rancid‘s third Montreal date on August 31st. Punknews.org reported: “About halfway through the show Frederiksen suddenly collapsed while the band was performing the song “7 years down” from their Let’s go album. The band was playing and then suddenly stopped when guitarist/vocalist Lars Fredrikssen fainted. Guitarist/vocalist Tim Armstrong and bassist/vocalist Matt Freeman rushed to their bandmate lying on stage, looking very preoccupied. After a couple of minutes, Fredrikssen was helped off stage by bandmembers and roadies. The crowd anxiously awaited news from the band for about 15-20 minutes. Tim and Matt came back on stage to announce Fredrikssen had suffered a seizure and was hurried to a Montreal hospital. They also told the crowd that the band would come back to play another gig pretty much as soon as Fredrikssen would be back and healthy.” In a statement, the band revealed: “Due to Lars Frederiksen’s sudden illness, Rancid will post-pone their shows from Sept. 1-4 in Toronto and Buffalo. The tour will resume on Sept. 5th in Pittsburgh, PA. Tickets for the post-poned shows will be honored for their correlating reschedule dates to be announced shortly. We appreciate your understanding and will return soon!”
