The Sick came up out of the San Francisco hardcore scene in 1996 — founded by bassist Warner Harrison and named by Nick Lynch, who wrote the first songs that got it moving: Drop It, Bring It On, My House and Perfect. From the start the band carried a particular weight. It was formed by musicians who had come through addiction and out the other side, and you can hear it across the records — fast, heavy, confrontational hardcore with a stubborn streak of hope running through it.

They earned their reputation the hard way, on stage. The Sick played hundreds of shows across the Bay Area and beyond — 163 documented local gigs, enough to rank them the 12th most prolific punk band in San Francisco Bay Area history. They toured Europe twice, including a three-month run across the continent, and turned up everywhere from 924 Gilman and Maritime Hall to the 2005 Vans Warped Tour, SXSW and EAT’M.

Along the way they became the Bay Area’s go-to local opener, and some of their best nights were spent warming up the stage for punk legends — Suicidal Tendencies, Bad Brains, 999 (in Europe), the Angry Samoans, Agent Orange, the Dead Kennedys, the Exploited and the UK Subs. They shared bills with D.R.I., H2O, Flipper, Time in Malta, Hatebreed, Death Angel, Tommy Ramone, Papa Roach, and even Everlast and a metal-phase Vanilla Ice — plus countless hometown shows alongside Lica Sto, Insolence, Spike 1000, STFU, La Plebe and far too many more to name.

The break that put those records out came almost by accident. The band met Joey Liebke of The Edge Recordz at an indoor skatepark show in Reno — a bill they were on with Lagwagon, whose van broke down so they never made it. Joey saw something in The Sick, signed them, and The Edge Recordz carried the band’s name well beyond the Bay.

The records kept coming: the Rebellion demo in 1997, then four LPs — SF Hardcore (1999), Code of Growth (2000), Better For Who?… (2002) and Killing My Hope (2006) — and the On The Fence EP in 2008. SF Hardcore was mixed by Henry Rollins at Fantasy Studios, with Rollins singing backup on Naked, and the band took Best Punk Band at the 1999 SF Weekly Wammies. Their songs kept turning up in unexpected places — Thrasher’s Hall of Meat, 411 Video Magazine, ESPN2’s X2Day and Fox Sports’ Blue Torch TV.

In May 2002 the band lost Warner Harrison — the founder, and the heart of its low end. They played a memorial show at 924 Gilman that July with every dollar going to his young daughter and, carried by an outpouring from the scene, chose to keep going in his memory. The Sick played their last show in Oakland in November 2007 and bowed out with On The Fence in 2008 — more than a decade after that first night in San Francisco.