I've owned the Primus Hallucenogenetics DVD for around ten months now. I love it. I've watched it twice. I've owned the Rolling Stones Four Flicks DVD set for almost two years now. I love that too, and would go so far as to say it's the best music DVD set ever released. I've watched the whole thing (3 full concerts and 2 documentaries) once, and parts of it about four or five times. Just to reiterate, I've owned these two DVDs for a total of almost 3 years, I love them both, and I've only watched them a combined half- dozen times.

I got the Give 'Em The Boot DVD last week, and I've watched it five times. The disc is a collection of live performances by Rancid and other bands on front-man Tim Armstrong's record label, Hellcat Records. It's such a treasure trove of cool/rare moments, that I just can't stop playing it. It probably doesn't hurt that Rancid is my absolute favorite band of all time, and about half of the stuff on here is either them, or their side projects, Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards/The Transplants, but the other stuff on here is pretty great too.

The disc starts off on a New York City rooftop, where Joe Strummer of The Clash shouts out "Hellcat over the world, forever and a day!" and then it jumps right to where the action is. Lars is onstage, introducing the band, and then they tear into "Ruby Soho" the first of nine Rancid songs spread throughout the film. The tracks they picked cover five of their six albums. Everything is represented save their second self-titled album which was released in 2000. I wonder what that's about . . . but I digress. Other than the nine Rancid songs, the guys also do a cover of The Stooges' "No Fun" with Iggy himself on vocals. Plus as another added bonus, Tim sings a few bars of the Operation Ivy (Tim/Matt's legendary pre-Rancid band) song "Knowledge."

Both "No Fun" and "Knowledge" by the way represent one of the most surprising and satisfying aspects of this film . . . acoustic Rancid! No, that's not a typo. Aside from the two tracks I already mentioned, there are two other acoustic performances on the DVD. The first is both Tim and Lars playing "Roots Radical" in what looks like a college classroom, and the second which is my favorite moment on the DVD is Tim playing "Rats In The Hallway" solo in a hotel room, with Lars looking on.

I mentioned there was non-Rancid content on here, so lets look at that. There's a short tribute to Joe Strummer over which plays his version of Bob Marley's "Redemption Song". Other than that there's two actual performances by Strummer, and one apiece by Tiger Army, F-Minus, Nekromantix, U.S. Bombs, The Slackers, Horrorpops, Roger Miret and the Disasters, Dropkick Murphys, and The Nerve Agents. Oh and there's a short one by a homeless looking guy with an acoustic guitar.

The music on here, which is all rare and unreleased, is so damn good, that for the first five days I had it, I was actually pissed off at Hellcat for not releasing a soundtrack, so I could throw it on my iPod and carry it around with me. Then I had a brainstorm, and figured I could probably make my own soundtrack CD. I downloaded some software and ripped the DVD's audio to MP3. Don't you just love my D.I.Y. ethic? I happily loaded the tracks onto my iPod and gave the homemade compilation a title . . . Give 'Em The Bootleg. What else could it be? By the way, no I won't make you a copy. Punk rockers have lawyers too. You think I wanna get sued?

So to sum it up - just like in the film when U.S. Bombs' singer Duane Peters says "I heard the Ramones, and it fucked me up!" - twelve years ago, I heard Rancid, and it fucked me up. This DVD is just them doing it again, only this time with friends.