Anaheim, CA - Doll Hut
December 1, 1995



Secret Offspring Gig At A "Punk" Club

Addicted To Noise Orange County correspondent Mark Brown attended a secret Offspring gig that took place Friday (Dec. 1) night. Here is his report: "Hey, man, how you gonna pay for that?" The Offspring's Bryan "Dexter" Holland looked at the gaping hole in the low suspended ceiling at Linda's Doll Hut in Anaheim. Holland's head had gone through it - and narrowly avoided a ceiling fan - during a crowd-surfing finale to the Offspring's surprise gig Friday night.

"I don't know," he said. "I guess we'll have to take up a collection or something."

As a super-secret warm-up to an upcoming benefit concert, the Offspring returned to Linda's Doll Hut - official capacity: 49 - to pay back Linda Jemison, the club owner who'd booked the band for about a dozen gigs there a few years before eight million copies of Smash blew out of record stores worldwide.

It was payback for Jemison and for the ultra-connected fans who got word of the show - word Jemison even held back from her employees till the last minute. So late Friday night in a roadhouse in an industrial part of Anaheim, just down the street from Disneyland, the Offspring did what they'd never been able to do before - sell the place out, overflowing into the street. (Linda's is a story in itself, THE classic Orange County punk club. If the walls could talk ... well, they'd be speechless. No stage, just a tiny corner of a tiny room where you can set up amps. Social Distortion, the Offspring, Face To Face and more got their first gigs here.)

It was a full set with nearly all requests. Smash smashes such as "Self Esteem," "Come Out and Play," and "Gotta Get Away" were represented, but this hardcore crowd was also singing along with tracks such as "Kill the President" off the band's recently re-released first album. Highlight of the evening, besides Holland's near-beheading and short takes on both "Basketcase" and "Smoke on the Water," was guitarist Kevin "Noodles" Wasserman's fall off the bass drum flat onto his ass - without missing a note.

Holland hung with fans to catch closing band One Hit Wonder's act. (The real find of the evening, though, was openers Brown Lobster Tank - imagine Green Day with cleaner guitar, a harder edge and even more energy.)

The Offspring plans to "get out of people's faces for a while," Holland said in an interview after the set. After Friday's benefit at the Hollywood Palladium, the band will take a few weeks off before going into the studio to make demos for the next album. No release date is set, but Holland emphasized that the band is going to stay with indie mainstay Epitaph.

By Mark Brown, from Addicted To Noise - December 3, 1995