Kansas City, KS - Liberty Hall
October 12, 1997

It seems that this band wasn’t able to sell quite enough tickets to play at Memorial Hall as scheduled, instead, they ended up having to move to Liberty Hall. Suprisingly, they actually sold more tickets after announcing the change than before. I soon gained backstage access and hung out with Voodoo Glow Skulls and The Joykillers. These bands can best be described as some form of ska. Though these bands were nothing out of the ordinary, they weren’t all that bad either.

After waiting for indeterminable amounts of time that seemed like an eternity and asking every security guy that walked by when Offspring would show up, I heard some activity in their dressing room. I walked in to find two guys and a girl. Crew members, I was sure. I asked the tall guy when Offspring would show up. He replied, "Uhh… They’re already on stage…" with a grin as if I was some kind of idiot for missing out on that little piece of information. Unfortunately, the worst was yet to come. "They’re already on stage? They’re not coming down here," I queried him. "Nope, they’re up their." "Well, I guess I better go up there, too," I replied. As I was about to depart, the young lady stopped me, "Would you know Offspring if you saw them?" With an idiotic grin I replied, "Actually… no, I wouldn’t." Her quick reply made me feel even stupider. "Well, you know you were just talkin’ to half the band." Man, I felt stupid. Turns out I had been talking to Noodles. Well, after this little period of extreme embarrassment, I introduced myself to them, had a little laugh, and found out that they were one pretty cool group of guys. I soon departed to allow them time to prepare for their performance.

The performance was incredibly well-coordinated, with great lighting, special effects and sound. At one point they invited two young audience members onto the stage to help sing "Come Out and Play." They also had a little bubble break with interesting music where they basically just handed out loads of cups filled with beer to the crowd, mostly minors. Crowd control made a few futile attempts to stop them. As far as music, Offspring entertained the audience with one great song after another. Overall, Liberty Hall, though quite small, ended up being a pretty fun concert location.

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

By Usman Latif