The Offspring
Hordern Pavilion
Sydney, Australia
11 December 2022
It must have been in 1990 when I was first exposed to The Offspring via their debut album that was released by Frank Harrison on his label Nemesis Records label.
The result saw the band incarnate with exactly the brash, gritty and raw edge that made me fall in love with 1980s-era punk rock from Cali’s Orange County area and while most songs followed the structure bands like the Adolescents and D.I. defined, from the get-go the charismatic vocal delivery and the band’s knack for infusing their memorable ditties with melodic harmonies stood out.
Four years later in the year that “punk broke” and ten years into the band’s existence, The Offspring released their third album, which was to become one of the best-selling independent album ever.
While trying my utmost to resist the appeal of punk rock bands that leapfrogged into mainstream acceptance, I could not resist the extremely infectious allure of Smash.
As I grew beyond my years as a juvenile delinquent and abandoned the notion of “guilty pleasures”, I thoroughly enjoyed the albums that followed and their innately playful nature as the band continued to evolve and flirt with novelty without ever diluting its DNA.
Needless to say, I was looking forward to The Offspring incarnating again on terra australis, especially since courtesy of global pandemic, the tour had to be pushed back several times.
What eventuated after Sum 41 opened the proceedings could not have been more of a pitch perfect homage to The Offspring’s legacy.
The sold-out crowd was treated to a well-curated set comprised of timeless bangers from their Smash album along with more recent emissions as well as some of their widely popular cheesier radio tunes, interweaved with banter, crowd interaction galore and all the trimmings and theatrics to keep a large-scale audience engaged at all times, including but not limited to a crowd cam, a blimp zig-zagging above the crowd dropping guitar picks, bouncing beach balls being unleashed onto the pit, pyro and the obligatory confetti rain.
Closing out their set with the anthem that is "Self-Esteem," a fun and life-affirming evening that brought together three generations concluded on a nostalgic high.
