Milwaukee, WI - The Rave
November 30, 1998



Powerful Punks: Offspring Cry Out The Call Of Chaos

Monday night at The Rave seemed like the set for "Apunkalypse Now" as reigning power punks the Offspring showed Milwaukee that anarchy does pay.

Any lingering doubts that the Southern California foursome had gone soft in the cushy world of commercial success were wiped away the moment they arrived on stage.

With rolling thunder drums that would have been at home at Ozzfest and guitar chords that sounded like a well-tuned chain saw, the Offspring gave their audience exactly what it came for: edgy power-chord punk that made you want to pogo frenetically in place like a jackhammer. And that's what most of the capacity crowd did.

The band pulled out several new songs early in the set, including their latest hit "Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)" and "Walla Walla." Even though the album "Americana" has been in stores less than a month, most of the human pogo sticks were singing along word for word.

The biggest cheers were reserved for more familiar material, including "Gone Away," the closest vocalist Dexter Holland and his band mates get to a ballad. Holland wasn't much for between-song chatting, preferring instead to let the music speak - and shout.

The Offspring proved they're not only pretty fly for white guys - they're also pretty darn punkalicious for millionaires who could have chosen to turn their backs on the mosh pit. Deadlines precluded a review of the Offspring's entire set.

San Diego's Unwritten Law may be the next punksters to achieve commercial hugeness on the level of bands such as the Offspring and Green Day, and deservedly so.

Never mind that the quintet sneaked enough melody and even vocal harmonies into their set to make Sid Vicious spin in his grave.

When push came to mosh, the boys got thrashy with it, especially on such winners as "Sorry" and "Falling Down." Their energetic cover of "Guns of Brixton" turned the Clash's melancholy classic into a white gangsta thrash-o-rama.

Opening act the Chubbies seemed to feed off the crowd's hostility toward them. Despite shouts of "Get off the stage!" and worse, the two women (on guitar and drums) pounded, strummed, and hiccup-sang their way through a half-hour set. In their best moments, the Chubbies recalled early punky pop bands such as Cyndi Lauper's Blue Angel - but those moments were few and far between.

By Gemma Tarlach, from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel