Toronto, ONT - Air Canada Centre
December 5, 2000

THE OFFSPRING
Air Canada Centre, Toronto
Tuesday, December 5, 2000

TORONTO -- In their six-year climb from the club, to the hall, to the sports arena, The Offspring have managed to stick to their musical guns.

Still, assuming there were some there, old fans of the Southern California thrash-pop veterans must have done a double-take last night as the band took the Air Canada Centre stage armed with: An occasional extra drummer; a back-up singer- percussionist; a complex back-drop with doors that opened to reveal secret garages; a lighting rig so bright it could've hailed distant planets; and even a glow-in-the-dark bass.

Those bells and whistles helped fill the vast space, which otherwise looked a little bare with most of the 5,000-strong audience crammed into the front of the arena and about a hundred scattered around the back.

Sure, the band drew the line at pyro and flashpots.

Singer-guitarist Dexter Holland still sported his bleached out 'do and baggy skate pants, and greying guitarist Noodles even pulled on an A-for-Anarchy T-shirt for the occasion.

But the strongest sign of The Offspring's continued success came not from the set, or even the band, but from the crowd itself.

See, Holland, Noodles, bassist Greg Kriesel, and drummer Ron Welty make music that is custom-fit for thousands of voices singing along.

The simplest three-chord punk melodies turn into soaring anthems. Fists wave in time with chugging guitars and jolting beats.

It's a wonder Holland didn't just lay down his mike and let the audience do his job for him.

Smart men who've scored hits with both raw emotional confessions ('94's Self Esteem) and dumbed-down satire (last year's monsters Pretty Fly For A White Guy and Why Don't You Get A Job), The Offspring obviously know their strong suits.

That may be why they didn't lean too heavily on new album Conspiracy Of One last night.

Instead, tried-and-true favourites, such as their breakthrough hit Come Out And Play (Keep 'Em Separated), Get Away and All I Want dotted the proceedings. The band reached back into a hefty discography that includes 1992's Ignition, '94's Smash (then the first indie record to ever crack a million in sales), '97 slump Ixnay On The Hombre and their biggest album, '98's Americana.

Still, judging from the instant response to current single Original Prankster -- consider it Pretty Fly For A White Guy 2000 -- it should only be a matter of weeks before Conspiracy Of One is etched permanently on the setlist.

Surprisingly, The Offspring's guitar-heavy assault sounded positively fluffy compared to that of billmates Cypress Hill.

The erstwhile hip-hop crew have long since adopted a newfangled thrash approach to keep up with today's record-selling Joneses (and Limp Bizkits), and their hour-long performance sounded solid, if monotonous.

Too bad, considering how catchy they still sounded when they dipped occasionally into their bag of early '90s hemp-hop faves, such as Hand On The Pump, How I Could Just Kill A Man and Insane In The Brain.

Peddling L.A. gun 'n' weed culture to the white mallrats of middle America since '92, these guys could still make Let The Good Times Roll sound like it was written about getting high in an army tank.

Frontman B-Real seemed a bit annoyed by the low-key nature of the crowd, but he must've at least taken heart during Hits From The Bong, as spliffs could be seen sparking up like Christmas tree lights in the dark of the arena.

By Kieran Grant, from Toronto Sun - December 6, 2000