Milwaukee, WI - The Rave
April 13, 1999



Offspring's Punk-pop Mix Pretty Fly Indeed

Think of them as the rowdiest pop band on the planet.

The Offspring returned to town Tuesday at the Eagles Ballroom for a near-capacity show that featured a 300-pound dancing fool, the pummeling of 'N Sync (in effigy, anyway) and 90 minutes of the Southern California band's trademark kitschy-catchy punk.

The secret to the Offspring's multiplatinum success is simple: Take punk's musical bluntness and singer/guitarist Dexter Holland's gift for wry observation and slap on a couple coats of pure pop - stick-in-your-head hooks and sing-along choruses.

Stuffing the set list with songs from their most recent album, "Americana," Holland and company seemed determined to give fans the most mosh for their money. The band plowed through a dozen songs, including "Walla Walla," "Have You Ever," and "Gone Away," without coming up for air or wasting time on between-song banter.

Holland did take a few seconds out, however, to beat up on five mannequins introduced to the audience as teenybopper group 'N Sync. As the dressed-up dummies fell one by one to Holland's plastic bat, there was much rejoicing in the crowd of roughly 2,000 teens and college-aged fans.

After speeding through the snickery anti-anthem "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)" at a decidedly faster tempo than on the album, The Offspring took a breather and offered some surreal "intermission entertainment" in the form of a very large man in a very small G-string who undulated on top of the stage monitors.

Then it was right back into the music. With guitarist Kevin "Noodles" Wasserman, drummer Ron Welty and bassist/backup yeller Greg Kriesel in tow, Holland shouted his way through "Come Out and Play" and "Self Esteem," the biggest hits off the group's 1994 breakthrough album, "Smash," mixed with more of "Americana," including the Middle Eastern-inflected "Pay the Man" and "Get a Job."

The final encore? A cover of "Feelings," delivered by Holland like a lounge singer on some very bad acid, reminding us all that punk shouldn't be pretty - even the candy-coated kind.

Nifty opening band The Living End sounded like the second coming of The Clash with slice 'n' dice chords, brooding bass lines and hints of ska tossed in with Chris Cheney's gruff vocals. Romps such as "Bloody Mary" and a cover of Soft Cell's "Tainted Love" suggested that the young Australians may be next in line to wear the punk-pop crown.

By Gemma Tarlach, from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - April 15, 1999