Chicago, IL - The Metro
December 2, 1998

I'm sitting in my seat at The Metro for The Offspring show, and I have a dilemma. See, I got to the venue way early for the simple fact of getting a seat, or which they are few and far between, and to get a decent one with a good camera angle, well, you'd better get there and be one of the first in line when the doors open. I wasn't one of the first, but still scored a pretty decent seat with an okay shot of the stage. But my dilemma was this: For a change the photo policy allowed me to use a flash if I was in the photo pit, which meant I'd likely get better photos but would lose my seat, possibly get kicked in the head by a crowd surfer, and have to fight through the crowd to get to the photo pit. It was that, or I could stay in my seat with the nice view, but probably have crappy photos. Well, as you can see from the photos I opted for the photo pit, lost my seat, didn't get kicked in the head, but surprisingly found a nice spot on the floor in which to enjoy the frolicking tunes of The Offsrping.

I've seen The Offspring before, but at the cave known as The Aragon Ballroom. That place was packed, and it was hard to see the band, so being able to see them at the smaller Metro was going to be a treat. As far as the band, "Smash" was one of my favorite CD's years ago, and I'm liking "Americana" (their latest) even more, but there is something about seeing a band live, seeing a mosh-pit in full frenzy, that can make the music even better. Such was the case this Wednesday night as the band opened with "All I Want" from "Ixnay on the Hombre," and blasted through about an hour and a half of the radio hits, you might know them as "I Choose," "Gone Away," "Self Esteem," "Come Out and Play," and their latest "Pretty Fly for a White Guy;" not-so-radio hits, you might not know them as "Cool to Hate," "Nitro," "Genocide," and all the songs played off of "Americana." They even delighted the crowd with the kinda dorky but still entertaining "Intermission" as the bubble machines were fired up, the big, roadie type dude carried a lighted intermission sign around the stage, and the sound dude forget to hit the stop button on the CD player. And as cool as the music was, as excellent as Dexter came off singing, as Noodles fired his guitar on all cylinders, and as entertaining the mosh-pit could become, I also saw a first, and it kind of went like this:

After "Have You Ever," Dexter proclaims that the sound dude needs a beer. He opens one and asks the crowd to pass it back to the sound booth. Well, upon its arrival the sound dude proclaims that the beer arrived a little empty, and he would need another. So Dexter decides this one should be hand delivered. He stage dives into the crowd, the crowd "surfs" him to the sound booth where he delivers the beer, the crowd then "surfs" Dexter back to the stage, and the band goes into "Pretty Fly for a White Guy." I am easily amused, and that was one of the coolest things I have seen at a show.

As the show was wrapping up to the sounds of "Nitro," I was totally pleased that I had gotten a chance to see The Offspring in an intimate venue such as The Metro, but I was a little sad because even though they played a lot of the songs I liked, they didn't play some of my new, favoritist Offspring songs, "The Kid's Aren't Alright," their cover of "Feelings," and "Pay the Man." But they did play "Walla Walla," and they did have bubble machines, so I'll let them slide.

The Offspring came out as a punk band, were accused of selling out, but I'll tell you what, they put on a hell of a show. Let's wrap this review up with TWO BIG "PRETTY FLY FOR WHITE GUYS" THUMBS UP!!

That's it for this one, I'm The Dude on the Right!!! L8R!!

By The Dude On The Right, from Entertainment Ave!