Pomona, CA - Glass House
November 21, 1998



Fast, fresh and 'fly'

The Offspring doesn't waste any time in getting its ya-ya's out - but then, when you're cranking out 18 songs (19 if you count "Intermission") in barely more than an hour, there's no time to mess around.

So the band jumped right into the ya-ya-ya's of "All I Want" Saturday night at the Glass House and churned out a crisp, fast-paced set devoid of trou-dropping or bratty-punk hi-jinks. (Except maybe for the group's dis of Garth Brooks.)

"You guys are in for a special treat because I think we're all sober," said singer Dexter Holland, fresh-scrubbed and looking like a young Michael McKean, albeit with spikier hair.

Back in the day, the Orange County four-piece outfit played in places like the old Spanky's Cafe in Riverside. Then, much to everyone's surprise, it sold a couple million copies of an indie album, "Smash," and a mixture of old-school punks and suburban kids started filling bigger venues.

The new album wasn't called "Americana" for nothing; rather than a perversion, punk is now an accepted part of the mainstream. Early last week, the band sold out three nights at Hollywood's Palace as well as the Glass House - and at Saturday's show, the audience was almost exclusively clean-cut kids. The moshing and crowd surfing was surprisingly modest, but they chanted along to nearly every word.

Though it's matured some, the band hasn't changed quite as much. Holland and company - bassist Greg Kriesel, drummer Ron Welty and guitarist Noodles (Kevin Wasserman, wearing thick glasses) - have always caged idealistic punk and a sense of humor in songs that are sometimes little more than really hard, really fast pop or rock numbers.

"The Meaning of Life" might have been a better Bad Religion song than most Bad Religion songs; "I Choose" smacked of classic rock crossed with Latin percussion. Elsewhere, riffs sounded like everything from a heavy-metal Cars to the Knack.

That's actually a testimony to the knack the Offspring has with melodies. By the end of the set some songs were starting to sound like others, but few Offspring tunes can be mistaken for music from any other band.

Lyrics are smart without being pretentious, often taking weighty issues to heart. Yet the band lets roadies contribute vocals or percussion, and isn't so staidly punk that it's above employing a bubble machine.

The Offspring's biggest hits have come with quirky parenthetical songs - "Come Out and Play (Keep 'Em Separated)," which chugged through some juvenile delinquency, and the new "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)" slammed through a dressing-down of b-boy and gangsta wannabes, though Holland scaled back the whining tone of the record - a necessity if he wants his voice to last for more than a week.

The concert was more of a greatest-hits set than a showcase for the band's "Americana," which was released last week. Welty set the fast pace, and while Noodles occasionally stepped atop a monitor, Holland was the center of attention, quickly shedding the zebra-print shirt he wore over a black T-shirt and latter setting aside his own guitar. He may not be the flashiest showman, but he remained pumped up and made an easy connection with the crowd.

The band kept songs short and sweet as well as its set. It might have been a streak of punk perverseness - or merely a lack of rehearsal time - but the band's light touch with its new material actually left you wanting a little more from "Americana."

By Cathy Maestri, from The Press-Enterprise - November 23, 1998