Indianapolis, IN - Murat Egyptian Room
October 7, 1997

PREVIEW

In this sarcasm-impaired world, it's comforting to have a band like the Offspring playing its pop-punk at a relentless gallop and mocking many of the same people who buy its discs.

People often don't get the joke, singer Brian "Dexter' Holland admits. He doesn't mind.

"We had people who used to break our CD Smash and put it in an envelope and send it back to us with a letter saying, 'I can't believe you condone freeway violence, in a song like "Bad Habit," ' " says Holland, who'll be in town Tuesday when the Offspring plays at the Murat Egyptian Room.

"They completely missed the point. That's how it's always gonna be, and that's OK with me. They're missing it and the joke's kind of on them for really being too dumb to see what is, I think, fairly obvious sarcasm."

Take a song like "Cool to Hate" from the band's latest disc, Ixnay on the Hombre. When Holland sings, "I hate the jocks and I hate the geeks/I hate the trendies but I also hate the freaks/I hate your band and I hate TV/I'm only happy when I'm in my misery," he's getting his digs at people who have that hate-everything attitude.

Taken seriously

Some of them can be found in his audience.

"There are people who actually get it and think it's funny and there are people who actually live it and they relate to it," he says. "They don't realize that maybe it's not a flattering comment on their life."

It's the same way with "Mota," which makes fun of stoned people. ("Mota" is southern California/Hispanic slang for marijuana.)

"I didn't want it to be a pro-marijuana song and I didn't want it to be an anti-marijuana song because I didn't want it to be preachy," says Holland, a former doctoral student who gave up his studies in molecular biology when the Offspring began to hit nationally.

"We were in the studio and I think it was the producer (Dave Jerden) who said, 'Why don't you write about all the stupid things you do when you're stoned?' So we left it at that and you can pull your own judgments from it that way."

That kind of humor has always been a part of the Offspring's music, and it was a factor in turning the band from a local act in Orange County, Calif., to an international hit.

Some fans saying 'Ixnay'

Three years ago, the Offspring's album Smash sold 8.5 million copies, thanks to the hits "Self-Esteem" and "Come Out and Play (Keep 'em Separated)."

Ixnay on the Hombre hasn't been nearly as commercially successful, and it's reflected in the size of the venues the Offspring have been performing in. On the band's last trip to Indianapolis, it played a 3,500-capacity hall at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. This time, they're in the Egyptian Room, which holds 1,800.

Again, Holland says he isn't bothered.

"I like it when it's a little tighter and a little more crowded," he says. "There's usually such an attitude that bands have, that they have to play the largest possible place to make sure that every single person that wants to go can get in. I'd rather play a show where the people that got in maybe had a better time because they were able to have a more reactive show."

From "Circle City" - October 6, 1997

REVIEW

Rock 'n' roll has splintered into many separate but (mostly) equal factions — punk, metal, classic rock and ska among them. On Tuesday at the Murat's Egyptian Room, the Offspring demonstrated that the styles aren't that far apart and, in fact, can be easily bridged.

Combining punk's speed, metal's brawn, ska's bounce and rock's melody and humor, the Southern California band put together a nearly flawless 70-minute show filled with four-minute songs.

During "The Meaning of Life" and "So Alone," the band went off to the races with drummer Ron Welty pounding out double-time beats. When he slowed down, as he did on "Dirty Magic" and "Smash," the tunes had the force of metal. "Gone Away" had a vocals-guitar-bass-drums directness that brought to mind great rock bands like the Rolling Stones.

Regardless of the dominant genre, the Offspring's 18 songs all contained three must-haves: melody, hooks and energy to burn. The band got you singing along with serious lines about battling personal demons ("All I know is, I gotta get away from me") and then had you laughing at stoned people ("Your enemy's you and the couch is your life, mota boy").

Plus, plenty of funny moments were sprinkled throughout the show. During the "intermission," the "Tea for Two Tango" played over the public-address system and bubbles spewed from a bubble machine. Later, the band held a stage-diving contest in which one of the security guards participated.

"I know you guys think it would be really funny to drop him, but don't," singer Dexter Holland cautioned just before the guard jumped from the stage into the crowd's waiting arms.

Near the show's end, Holland invited probably 100 kids from the crowd of more than 1,500 onstage to do more diving. None did. Instead, they jumped and bounced and reveled in the moment, burning up energy and celebrating a night of straightforward rock 'n' roll.

Oh, and one final note: Whatever the Offspring is paying sound man Greg Bess isn't nearly enough. He took a loud band into a difficult room — box-shaped, low ceiling, mostly marble — and made it sound better than would seem possible.

3,5 stars out of 4
From "Circle City" - October 8, 1997