The Offspring, Far Away Stables @ The Palace Theatre, Melbourne (06/03/2013)
The Offspring are a phenomenal band and it was only fitting that they were playing at a phenomenal venue. The historical architecture gave the place a classic feel and the choice of four floors to watch the stage from meant everyone had a good view.
The support act for the night was Sydney based Far Away Stables who got the call up the day before the show. Despite a bit of tech issues at the start during their introduction (the lights wouldn’t go down after vocalist Brendan Sheargold asked twice) the band played with maturity and charmed the punk-rock hungry audience. They played alternative rock with hints of Silverstein, Taking Back Sunday and The Getaway Plan. A cover of Skrillex’s Cinema was lost on most of the crowd, but worked really well. If there was anything wrong with the set, I’d say it was that the music didn’t really match the fans coming to watch The Offspring (as well as Brendan falling over at the end).
After an intermission filled with great music hits such as Nirvana and Bob Marley, The Offspring finally came out and the fans erupted as they got a glimpse of Dexter Holland’s iconic blond spiked up hair. Marking the 20 year of anniversary of their second studio album Ignition they played the songs start to finish to the delight of the hard-core fans in the crowd. After the third song Kick Him While He’s Down Noodles took to the microphone:
“I think this is the best reception for this album we’ve ever gotten in the history of the universe. Fuck London, fuck Paris, let’s go Melbourne!”
To finish off the second last song of the album Nothing From Something touring Rhythm guitarist Todd Morse substituted a didgeridoo for a rythym stick. I really liked this Australian touch to the show.
Noodles told the crowd “were gonna go out the back and hang out with strippers and do cocaine because that’s what punk rockers do!” and they went into intermission.
They came back on and for me that’s when the night really got into gear. They seemed more energetic, the light effects were very, very good and the big signature flaming skull was hung in the background.
They opened with All I Want and then You’re Gonna Go Far Kid but the fans really reacted to Come Out and Play. The beachy riff really got attention in the mosh and many shirtless big guys created a circle pit and started running into each other twice as hard as usual.
After playing Staring at the Sun Dexter explained the crowd the concept of the encore; “we’re gonna go out the back, you guys are gonna cheer for more and then we will come out and play some more songs”.
They returned to stage and over the speakers played the intro to Pretty Fly (For a White Guy) and the room went off. After playing for over 20 years, the whole band looked like they were having so much fun and Dexter had a constant smile on his face while performing. They finished with The Kids Aren’t Alright and a special version of Self Esteem where Dexter asked the crowd to sing all the verses.
Despite not playing my favourite Offspring songs Spare Me the Details and Get a Job it was a really great night for everyone in the venue. They also said that they would like to come back for the 20 year anniversary of Smash, so look out for that in 2014!
RyanHyde
Follow me on Twitter - @RyanHyde93
The support act for the night was Sydney based Far Away Stables who got the call up the day before the show. Despite a bit of tech issues at the start during their introduction (the lights wouldn’t go down after vocalist Brendan Sheargold asked twice) the band played with maturity and charmed the punk-rock hungry audience. They played alternative rock with hints of Silverstein, Taking Back Sunday and The Getaway Plan. A cover of Skrillex’s Cinema was lost on most of the crowd, but worked really well. If there was anything wrong with the set, I’d say it was that the music didn’t really match the fans coming to watch The Offspring (as well as Brendan falling over at the end).
After an intermission filled with great music hits such as Nirvana and Bob Marley, The Offspring finally came out and the fans erupted as they got a glimpse of Dexter Holland’s iconic blond spiked up hair. Marking the 20 year of anniversary of their second studio album Ignition they played the songs start to finish to the delight of the hard-core fans in the crowd. After the third song Kick Him While He’s Down Noodles took to the microphone:
“I think this is the best reception for this album we’ve ever gotten in the history of the universe. Fuck London, fuck Paris, let’s go Melbourne!”
To finish off the second last song of the album Nothing From Something touring Rhythm guitarist Todd Morse substituted a didgeridoo for a rythym stick. I really liked this Australian touch to the show.
Noodles told the crowd “were gonna go out the back and hang out with strippers and do cocaine because that’s what punk rockers do!” and they went into intermission.
They came back on and for me that’s when the night really got into gear. They seemed more energetic, the light effects were very, very good and the big signature flaming skull was hung in the background.
They opened with All I Want and then You’re Gonna Go Far Kid but the fans really reacted to Come Out and Play. The beachy riff really got attention in the mosh and many shirtless big guys created a circle pit and started running into each other twice as hard as usual.
After playing Staring at the Sun Dexter explained the crowd the concept of the encore; “we’re gonna go out the back, you guys are gonna cheer for more and then we will come out and play some more songs”.
They returned to stage and over the speakers played the intro to Pretty Fly (For a White Guy) and the room went off. After playing for over 20 years, the whole band looked like they were having so much fun and Dexter had a constant smile on his face while performing. They finished with The Kids Aren’t Alright and a special version of Self Esteem where Dexter asked the crowd to sing all the verses.
Despite not playing my favourite Offspring songs Spare Me the Details and Get a Job it was a really great night for everyone in the venue. They also said that they would like to come back for the 20 year anniversary of Smash, so look out for that in 2014!
RyanHyde
Follow me on Twitter - @RyanHyde93