Des Moines, IA - Super Toads
October 14, 1997

DES MOINES - The Offspring's concert at Super Toad Tuesday night was exactly what I expected it to be. It was full of punk sentimentalism and plenty of cheesey song interludes.

This was not surprising since The Offspring is a band more notorious for its fluff than its fury. The song selection was also not unexpected.

The band played all of its radio hits from "Smash" and "Ixnay on the Hombre" and a few lesser-known gems from its self-titled release and "Ignition."

Unfortunately, the two opening groups, both from its former recording label Epitaph, failed to excite the crowd for the headlining act.

The Joykiller was absolutely horrible with its speed metal-laced punk/ska set. Most of the audience stood completely still or ignored the group during its set.

Voodoo Glow Skulls got a mixed reaction. Some people seemed to enjoy it quite a bit, but a lot of people covered their ears and grimaced with disgust.

I was one of the latter. I've never heard two worse performances in my life and I was overjoyed when the opening bands were finished.

The Offspring opened up its set with a taped introduction which was a mixture of "Time to Relax" from "Smash" and "Disclaimer" from "Ixnay on the Hombre." There was a very long, awkward pause between the end of the introduction and the band's entrance.

But the group finally emerged amidst lukewarm response from the audience, who were mostly bored until that point. The Offspring opened its performance with "Bad Habit," which had the audience shouting "stupid dumbshit goddamn mother fucker."

The group then proceeded to play a medley of hits, including "Nitro," "Gotta Get Away," "The Meaning of Life," "Gone Away," "I Choose," "Beheaded" and "Genocide."

The Offspring attempted to manipulate the audience the entire concert by building up suspense over whether or not it was going to do "Come Out and Play (Gotta Keep 'Em Separated)." (SurpriseÉ the band did play it.)

Offspring's between-song antics quickly became old and tiresome. Lead singer Dexter Holland continuously ranted about the Spice Girls and Hanson, as if the way his group became popular was any better. Who are The Offspring, of all people, to judge other musicians?

Holland coaxed a man and a woman to come on stage before "Come Out and Play" and kiss each other. The whole incident seemed juvenile and cheesey.

The band encouraged several people to come onto the stage and crowd dive. It also managed to persuade two of Super Toad's big, burly security guards (Where do they get those monsters, anyway?) to stage dive as well.

The second half of the set sounded a lot better than the first half. The first half was plagued by sound difficulties and a pair of blown speakers which hindered the group's sound tremendously.

During the second half, however, the difficulties were mended and things proceeded rather smoothly.

The Offspring sounded fairly tight (although Greg Kriesel's bass sounded warped all evening) on "Something to Believe In," "So Alone," "Smash," "Way Down the Line" and "My Old Lady."

Unfortunately, the crowd was fairly subdued all evening. Only a handful of songs got the audience moving. There was a very large turnout which hindered the mosh pit.

The vast majority of the crowd seemed content crushing each other to get to the front of the stage.

I left Tuesday night with a vague feeling of just how utterly pathetic punk music has gotten, especially when a band which has been around for more than 10 years is proud of a fan base with an average age of 13.

By Ben Jones, from Iowa State Daily Publications - October 16, 1997