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The Offspring
A Concert Review |
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| Dexter Holland |
I'm sitting in my seat at The Metro for The Offspring show, and I
have a dilemma. See, I got to the venue way early for the simple
fact of getting a seat, or which they are few and far between, and
to get a decent one with a good camera angle, well, you'd better get
there and be one of the first in line when the doors open. I wasn't
one of the first, but still scored a pretty decent seat with an okay
shot of the stage. But my dilemma was this: For a change the photo
policy allowed me to use a flash if I was in the photo pit, which
meant I'd likely get better photos but would lose my seat, possibly
get kicked in the head by a crowd surfer, and have to fight through
the crowd to get to the photo pit. It was that, or I could stay in
my seat with the nice view, but probably have crappy photos. Well,
as you can see from the photos I opted for the photo pit, lost my
seat, didn't get kicked in the head, but surprisingly found a nice
spot on the floor in which to enjoy the frolicking tunes of The
Offspring.
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| Noodles |
I've seen The Offspring before, but at the cave known as The Aragon
Ballroom. That place was packed, and it was hard to see the band, so
being able to see them at the smaller Metro was going to be a treat.
As far as the band, "Smash" was one of my favorite CD's
years ago, and I'm liking "Americana" (their latest) even
more, but there is something about seeing a band live, seeing a
mosh-pit in full frenzy, that can make the music even better. Such
was the case this Wednesday night as the band opened with "All
I Want" from "Ixnay on the Hombre," and blasted
through about an hour and a half of the radio hits, you might know
them as "I Choose," "Gone Away," "Self
Esteem," "Come Out and Play," and their latest
"Pretty Fly for a White Guy;" not-so-radio hits, you might
not know them as "Cool to Hate," "Nitro,"
"Genocide," and all the songs played off of
"Americana." They even delighted the crowd with the kinda
dorky but still entertaining "Intermission" as the bubble
machines were fired up, the big, roadie type dude carried a lighted
intermission sign around the stage, and the sound dude forget to hit
the stop button on the CD player. And as cool as the music was, as
excellent as Dexter came off singing, as Noodles fired his guitar on
all cylinders, and as entertaining the mosh-pit could become, I also
saw a first, and it kind of went like this:
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| Greg K. |
After "Have You Ever," Dexter proclaims that the sound
dude needs a beer. He opens one and asks the crowd to pass it back
to the sound booth. Well, upon its arrival the sound dude proclaims
that the beer arrived a little empty, and he would need another. So
Dexter decides this one should be hand delivered. He stage dives
into the crowd, the crowd "surfs" him to the sound booth
where he delivers the beer, the crowd then "surfs" Dexter
back to the stage, and the band goes into "Pretty Fly for a
White Guy." I am easily amused, and that was one of the coolest
things I have seen at a show.
As the show was wrapping up to the sounds of "Nitro," I
was totally pleased that I had gotten a chance to see The Offspring
in an intimate venue such as The Metro, but I was a little sad
because even though they played a lot of the songs I liked, they
didn't play some of my new, favoritist Offspring songs, "The
Kid's Aren't Alright," their cover of "Feelings," and
"Pay the Man." But they did play "Walla Walla,"
and they did have bubble machines, so I'll let them slide.
The Offspring came out as a punk band, were accused of selling
out, but I'll tell you what, they put on a hell of a show. Let's
wrap this review up with TWO BIG "PRETTY FLY FOR WHITE
GUYS" THUMBS UP!!
That's it for this one, I'm The Dude on the Right!!! L8R!! |
