The Offspring, Far Away Stables @ The Enmore Theatre, Sydney (08/03/2013)
After entertaining Soundwave crowds across Australia, The Offspring are finishing off both their Australian tour and the Soundwave festival with a series of intimate club shows. Their sold-out Sydney show, at the iconic Enmore Theatre, saw the surrounding streets filled with punk-rock kids of all ages and in band shirts of almost as many bands as people.
Opening the night, Sydney-locals Far Away Stables kept most of the crowd entertained with their alt-rock sound and engaging, if somewhat awkward, stage banter. Their set played through songs from their EP Behind The Bookcase as well as a rather surprising, but fitting, cover of Skrillex’s Cinema. The only real issue with their set was the constant retuning between almost every song that left the crowd a little lost and let most of the energy die down. Despite that and the fact that it seemed that no one had hear of these boys before they took to the stage and introduced themselves, by the end of their set it looked they had managed to fid themselves quite a few new fans.
The Offspring sauntered out on stage to the cheers and chants of the sold-out venue and blasted into their Anniversary Ignition set, commemorating 20 years of the album. Their set played through the entire album in disc order with occasional comments from both Dexter Holland and Noodles on their favourite songs, and quizzing the crowd on their knowledge of which songs were up next. The crowd pleasers of the set were Dirty Magic and Burn It Up, which were Noodles and Dexter’s favourite songs respectively, although they did seem to say that about most of the set list. Unfortunately, while the band was going all out on stage with the same energy levels as their festival sets, the crowd’s energy was a little less than expected.
After a brief interval, The Offspring took to the stage once again to a much more enthusiastic crowd. From the first “Ya ya ya ya ya” of All I Want, the crowd’s energy turned absolutely explosive and the band certainly stepped up their game to match. Next up was You’re Gonna Go Far Kid, which saw the entire venue of staff, crew and fans alike singing along to “now dance, fucker, dancer.” Their set continued through some of the highlights of their discography with both Days Go By and Come Out And Play (Keep ‘Em Separated) inducing some solid audience singing. Unlike their Melbourne set, they played Spare Me The Details with the explanation that they love coming to Australia purely because of the amazing reception this song gets at their shows down under. It was definitely obvious how well the song was received, with the crowd erupting into screams the second they picked the opening.
By the end of their second set it was clear that while most of the venue knew and liked the songs of Ignition, they were there for the classic set more so than the anniversary celebration.
The night was finished off with a three-song encore that saw both the crowds and the band’s energy peak, with perhaps some of their most well known songs. Pretty Fly (For A White Guy) was a definite highlight of the show, with even just the opening seconds of the intro creating a massive burst of excitement amongst the audience. The encore continued on with The Kids Aren’t Alright, which continued the massive amounts energy (and sweat) pouring off the stage. Before finishing off their encore, Dexter took to the mic to let the crowd know that while “Melbourne was one of the best shows we’ve ever played, but tonight has been even better” before finishing off with a mostly audience lead rendition of Self Esteem, which according to both Dexter and Noodles, sounded much better than the efforts of the earlier Melbourne show.
The Offspring’s show was an absolutely fantastic night and 20th anniversary celebration of Ignition. After growing up listening to them and only seeing bits of their Soundwave set, it was great to finally see their complete show and a perfect end to the Soundwave season.
Bethany Williams
Opening the night, Sydney-locals Far Away Stables kept most of the crowd entertained with their alt-rock sound and engaging, if somewhat awkward, stage banter. Their set played through songs from their EP Behind The Bookcase as well as a rather surprising, but fitting, cover of Skrillex’s Cinema. The only real issue with their set was the constant retuning between almost every song that left the crowd a little lost and let most of the energy die down. Despite that and the fact that it seemed that no one had hear of these boys before they took to the stage and introduced themselves, by the end of their set it looked they had managed to fid themselves quite a few new fans.
The Offspring sauntered out on stage to the cheers and chants of the sold-out venue and blasted into their Anniversary Ignition set, commemorating 20 years of the album. Their set played through the entire album in disc order with occasional comments from both Dexter Holland and Noodles on their favourite songs, and quizzing the crowd on their knowledge of which songs were up next. The crowd pleasers of the set were Dirty Magic and Burn It Up, which were Noodles and Dexter’s favourite songs respectively, although they did seem to say that about most of the set list. Unfortunately, while the band was going all out on stage with the same energy levels as their festival sets, the crowd’s energy was a little less than expected.
After a brief interval, The Offspring took to the stage once again to a much more enthusiastic crowd. From the first “Ya ya ya ya ya” of All I Want, the crowd’s energy turned absolutely explosive and the band certainly stepped up their game to match. Next up was You’re Gonna Go Far Kid, which saw the entire venue of staff, crew and fans alike singing along to “now dance, fucker, dancer.” Their set continued through some of the highlights of their discography with both Days Go By and Come Out And Play (Keep ‘Em Separated) inducing some solid audience singing. Unlike their Melbourne set, they played Spare Me The Details with the explanation that they love coming to Australia purely because of the amazing reception this song gets at their shows down under. It was definitely obvious how well the song was received, with the crowd erupting into screams the second they picked the opening.
By the end of their second set it was clear that while most of the venue knew and liked the songs of Ignition, they were there for the classic set more so than the anniversary celebration.
The night was finished off with a three-song encore that saw both the crowds and the band’s energy peak, with perhaps some of their most well known songs. Pretty Fly (For A White Guy) was a definite highlight of the show, with even just the opening seconds of the intro creating a massive burst of excitement amongst the audience. The encore continued on with The Kids Aren’t Alright, which continued the massive amounts energy (and sweat) pouring off the stage. Before finishing off their encore, Dexter took to the mic to let the crowd know that while “Melbourne was one of the best shows we’ve ever played, but tonight has been even better” before finishing off with a mostly audience lead rendition of Self Esteem, which according to both Dexter and Noodles, sounded much better than the efforts of the earlier Melbourne show.
The Offspring’s show was an absolutely fantastic night and 20th anniversary celebration of Ignition. After growing up listening to them and only seeing bits of their Soundwave set, it was great to finally see their complete show and a perfect end to the Soundwave season.
Bethany Williams