Toronto, ONT - Warehouse
July 23, 1997



California Punk Band Lacks Energetic Punch

An unworldly voice boomed from the speakers at Offspring's Warehouse show warning of indulgences to come. "You kids aren't here to relax. You're here to swear, get wasted, stage dive, puke in bathrooms," intoned the prerecorded voice as flashes of white light pulsed to march like beat. Good thing foes of Marilyn Manson weren't around, though like the hallow concerns of the anti-Manson camp, there was nothing on offer that anyone could fear, making for a less than exciting performance by the California punkers Wednesday night. Not that it was a bad show. The sound in the notoriously unacoustically friendly Warehouse was almost pin-drop clear.

The songs, mostly a selection from their last two albums the 1994 sales of monster Smash (8.5 million copies worldwide) and lastest release, Ixnay On The Hombre, were tight and crisp. All the hits were played. Chiefly the show lacked an energetic punch. Just a couple of songs into the set someone yelled "faster" a widely felt sentiment judging by the crowd's polite applause and half-hearted calls for an encore after one of their biggest hits, "Self Esteem." Part of the problem was spike-haired vocalist Dexter Holland, who looked like Billy Idol, especially when backlit. Holland is a literate, messageminded lyricist (he's a few credits shy of his microbiology degree), but he lacks onstage charisma. His tongue-in-check between-song banter is worthy of a few chuckles but there was never sense of audience connection. "you guys look a little with nothing up his sleeve to remedy it. And while Holland and guitarist Noodles bounched around at the beginning, they quickly settled into a near motionnless state. The band picked up the pace a bit for the Ixnay single "All I Want", but it was a momentary peak.

Already Offspring has downsized to smaller venues after their 1994-95 peak. They last played Toronto in 1995 to a sell-out crowd of 4,500 at Varsity Arena. Wednesday night's show in front of 2,200 suggests a return to a bigger venues is unlikely.

By Besty Powell, pop music critic