Adelaide, Australia - Adelaide Entertainment Center
December 3, 1997

Sounding as they do, like a musical hybrid of the Stray Cats and Green Day, support act The Living End doubtlessly won over quite a few new fans among an audience that, on average, would easily rate as one of the youngest I’ve seen in some time. The talented trio played a punchy set of rocking tunes that perfectly presaged The Offspring’s more straight-forward melodic punk.

If there is one thing to be said for The Offspring, it is that they know their audience well. The band took the stage in the wake of an intro tape that spelt out, in no uncertain terns, exactly how the audience would be expected to respond to the occasion, before the foursome launched into "Nitro" from their mega-successful ‘Smash’ album. In what became something of a theme for the night, singer Dexter Holland took a few moments preceding the appropriately titled "Cool To Hate" to lambast the Spice Girls. He referred to the British pop phenomenon several times throughout the show, with the cute twist coming a the end of the evening when the band left the stage while "If You Want To Be My Lover" blared through the PA.

For The Offspring’s new single "I Choose", The Band were augmented by a pair of punker percussion players who thudded away furiously while Holland strained for the high notes in the choruses. The singer found the upper registers consistently troublesome most notably during the evening’s encore, "Gone Away". Unfortunately, though, this was the least of their sonic woes. For the entirety of The Offspring’s bracket, their sound was marred by an overpoweringly loud kick drum that made the band seem conspicuously out of time. While it was difficult to tell whether this was merely a sonic illusion brought on by the kick’s abnormal prominence, or because the drums were actually being played out of time, and the sheer volume of the kick rendered it that much more obvious, it nonetheless detracted greatly from the show. As well as this, the ride cymbal was utterly inaudible , and the bass phenomenally muddy. These complaints (especially the last two) might seem like nit-picking to some, but surely at this level, people who are shelling out their hard earned money to see their favourite band deserve better.

Apart from the aforementioned Spice Girl-related mirth, the band’s irrepressible sense of fun came to the fore in ‘the intermission’, during which Holland, guitarist Noodles and bass player Greg K sat down for a rest on a couch that was placed onstage, as bubble machines shot forth their soapy progeny, and a briefly attired girl paraded around the stage-front bearing a flashing sign emblazoned with the word, "INTERMISION". Latter, Holland also invited a small selection of the crowd members, as well as one of the security staff (Ian, apparently), onto the stage for an officially sanctioned stagedive, with one of the chosen taking advantage of the captive audience to flash a quick moon, only to have Holland insist he repeat the act properly!

All this served the endear The Offspring to their audience, and accordingly, their set, especially singles like "Self Esteem", "All I Want" and the band’s breakthrough hit, "Come Out And Play" (which came surprisingly early on), was particularly well received.

When all is said and done, all that really matters, I suppose is that people leave the arena having enjoyed themselves, and felling that they’ve gotten their money’s worth. While many may well have felt that way, it’s unfortunate that this was no way aided by the quality of sound presented to them, but rather, in spite of it.

By Jeremy Reglar