Denver, CO - Fiddler's Green
May 17, 1999



Offspring bares its muscle

OFFSPRING
Grade: B +

When and where: Monday night, Fiddler's Green

Some bands don't belong in a big, tidy amphitheater where seats and security get in the way. The Offspring is probably one of those bands.

That's not to say the Southern California punkers couldn't keep a crowd of 8,000 or so entertained at Fiddler's Green on Monday. Rather, the bruising, racing 90-minute concert merely showed that you can take the combo out of the club, but you can't turn it into an arena rock act overnight.

Pacing? It meant nothing on Monday, but how could it when the quartet has two types of songs: fast ones and really fast ones.

The band got by on nothing but muscle, pummeling its way through buzz saw punk on breakneck songs such as Nitro and Genocide or infectious, sing-along ditties such as the Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da sound-alike, Why Don't You Get a Job?

As the frontman, Dexter Holland doesn't possess knock-dead charisma, just a voice that cuts across the din like the air horn you hear at hockey games. Noodles (a k a Kevin Wasserman) bounded about the stage with his guitar, but most of the evening's entertainment came courtesy of a pair of percussionists and extracurricular bit players.

The group also resorted to a couple of cheap and marginally cute tricks. Holland used a plastic bat to knock down a handful of mannequins made up to look like the Backstreet Boys, and a 30-second "intermission" included cheesy lounge music and bubbles spewing across the stage. (Bubbles at a punk show?)

Indeed, Offspring's user-friendly punk relies more on silly humor and hooks galore than the usual anger and ugly words. In other words, it's perfect for radio and the teen and twentysomething crowd.

Still, the group showed early that it's not a one trick pony with Gone Away, an anthemic, thoughtful highlight that belies the group's for-laughs formula.

Monday's show gathered speed in the second half, when it slowed for the chant-along rant of Gotta Get Away, followed by the wise-guy hits Pretty Fly (For a White Guy) and Come Out and Play.

But, just in case we were about to take the Offspring too seriously, the group ended its encore with a punked-up version of Morris Albert's Feelings.

By Michael Mehle, from News Popular - May 18, 1999