The Offspring en Londres. Foto: Joe Guppy JGVisuals
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The Offspring presented their ‘Let The Bad Times Roll’ tour in UK with The Hives and Bob Vylan accompanying them. Six dates that brought the heat and fun of the best Californian punk back to the islands. MariskalRock was in London.
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Best of the Offspring concert
1. The opening act: Bob Vylan and The Hives.
When you’re going to play an arena of 15,000 people, it’s good to surround yourself with high-level bands. The duet called Bob Vylan breaks the night. The singer calls himself… yes, Bobby Vylan. And to add to the confusion, the drummer says his name is Bobbie Vylan.
They are two mulattoes with dreadlocks who are turning the UK upside down with their raw fusion of rap and punk. Tonight dare to say that “Someone should kill the Queen” or that the “Police are pigs”. “England’s Ending” is already a classic among the most irreverent sections of the Islands. Live they are a bomb, and it has been a long time since a band came out with a message that was truly scary.
With The Hives we change the third in the stylistic. Their rock garage continues since they reigned in 2000 with the publication of ‘Veni Vidi Vicious’. Since then, a handful of hit-singles have kept them at the top. To that we must add that the magazine Spin gave them the award for “Best Live Band in the World.” His energy is brutal. The self-confidence of its singer and leader, Pelle Almqvist, makes him an irreverent and cool leader.
“We are The Hives. Now you hate us, but in 45 minutes you will love us”he yells just started the show. And he could not be more right.
The Offspring and Dublin. Photo: Tijs Van Leur
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2. A positive message is appreciated
It is the message that The Offspring sends to the world in their latest album, ‘Let The Bad Times Roll’ (Let the bad times come). What Dexter Holland, his singer and rhythm guitar, he told Pau Penalver in our interview of The Heavy 430: “We want to be realistic about the problems of the modern world, but giving a message that everything is going to be fine”.
That message that transcends on the album has permeated his followers, who have received the album quite well. Proof of this is that on tonight’s setlist they play three songs (on other nights even four): “Let The Bad Times Roll”, “The Opioid Diaries” and the version “In The Hall Of The Mountain King”.
From the last album they also play the reversal they make of their classic “Gone Away”. It is one of the most emotional moments of the night, with Dexter alone on stage starting at the piano: “I wrote this song many years ago when a very special person left my life. It sure has happened to you ”. It is one of the moments of greatest artist-audience connection.
3. What piece of catalog does The Offspring have?
Still, The Offspring wouldn’t need to have released a very good last album to fill an arena with fifteen thousand people. Its catalog fully hooked two generations, the one that goes from the mid-’90s and the one that starts in the ’00.
A show by The Offspring is singing and singing until you can’t. Although they leave their first two albums in oblivion, since they released ‘Smash’ in 1994, The Offspring became a specialist band in billing Californian punk classics.
Although both Dexter and the guitarist Noodles (both the original members of the group), they are a tad overweight, their vocal and technical level perfectly accompanies classics such as “Come Out And Play”, “Hit That”, “Gotta Get Away”, “Why Don’t You Get A Job ”,“ Pretty Fly (For A White Guy) ”or“ The Kids Aren´t Alright ”. I told you, full of classics.
4. The stage and its audience
Playing in an arena also puts you on the responsibility not only to function in sound and fitness, but also in scenery. Seeing The Offspring in their show wins a lot of money to see them at a festival.
Giant background screen that constantly accompanies different images and stories depending on the song and first light plays.
Also highlight how incredibly varied the audience of The Offspring is at their concerts. Many more t-shirts from Iron Maiden and jackets with heavy metal band patches than anyone could imagine. I don’t think there is a band that, without being heavy, attracts more heavy audiences than this one.
5. Tribute to the greats
Another great moment comes when Noodles is left alone on stage and with the audience in his pocket he begins to say that he thinks he is a very good guitarist.
To prove it, the guitarist of The Offspring starts with a medley of classic riffs from our culture, winning the hearts of the public when “Paranoid”, “The Trooper” plays. “SmokeOn The Water” or “Panama”. It is always appreciated that there are details like this between the big bands.
The Offspring and Hull. Photo: Tijs Van Leur
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The worst at an Offspring concert
1. The show is short
Just one hour and twenty-five minutes of live performance is not enough for times when the competition of younger bands can put you in a tight spot. Even more so if we count that despite the rain of classics playing tonight, they still have songs like “Nitro (Your Energy)”, for example. Come on, they could stretch a bit more!
2. His good cop / bad cop humor
The Offspring in concert has been exploiting this technique for quite some time. Dexter is serious, a bit of a “control” among friends. Whereas Noodles is the “borachillo.”
Without further ado, he says a couple of times during the night that “What a drunkenness I’m getting caught”. He opens a beer, takes a drink, and tosses it into the front rows. If at 58 years old he caught a drunkenness like that every night he plays, he would cancel almost all his shows.
The public already knows it, and although they have lost their grace a bit, they tolerate the game as long as we continue to have The Offspring for a while.
Conclusion: The Offspring is still in concert a constant stream of fun, singing and dancing. Punk rock energy from sunny California for a duet of great musicians who were successful at the age of 30 and who almost 30 later continue to sound valid among several generations.
Ñako Martinez @nakomartinez
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