Despite achieving no mainstream success, Energy is considered one of the most important albums of ska punk and is frequently cited as an influence by many later bands of the genre.

Guitarist Tim "Lint" Armstrong's label Hellcat Records re-released the original album as a 12-inch LP picture disc in 2004, and in 2007 put out a remastered version of the self-titled compilation.

Following the show, the band stopped at a local burrito shop with Lookout Records owners Larry Livermore and David Hayes to discuss future plans.

[3][4] Livermore and Hayes suggested recording a follow-up EP to their debut Hectic, but the band members revealed that they intended to do a full studio album.

"[4] During recording, however, the band ran into a number of disagreements with Hirsch, such as not wanting Lint to use distortion on his guitar and having bassist Matt McCall use an Ampeg SVT amp that "sounded like Blue Cheer or something.

[3] After agreeing to start over from scratch, Livermore was assigned with the task of firing Hirsch from the project and the band went to Sound and Vision Studios in San Francisco with Kevin Army in January 1989 to re-record the album.

However, a few weeks before the concert, Lint and McCall went to see Livermore "looking utterly shell-shocked" and revealed that Michaels had decided to leave the group and that they intended to break up.

[1] He praised the album for "succeed[ing] in combining all sorts of elements" and called it an "unsurpassed, highly intelligent, extremely fun record.

The Leftöver Crack song "Gay Rude Boys Unite" is a parody of "Unity" and the introduction music is deliberately similar to that of "Yellin' in My Ear".

Split Lip's 1996 compilation album Archived Music for Stubborn People: Songs You May or May Not Have Heard Before included a cover of "Unity."