The Offspring
Thebarton Theatre, Wednesday 5^th December 2018

(Reviewed by John Glennie)

It was a hot night in Adelaide, it was hot in The Thebby and it became even hotter when The Offspring hit the ground running with ‘Nitro’. The moshpit was certainly on fire (metaphorically speaking!) with lots of hair bouncing around at the foot of the stage. No good me being down there as I don’t have any hair!

The packed house went wild over ‘Gotta Get Away’ and ‘Something To Believe In’. One of my favourite The Offspring tracks ‘Come Out and Play’ certainly didn’t disappoint.

The pace didn’t slow down at all and the energy was awesome. A few tracks I wasn’t familiar with followed, including ‘Killboy Powerhead’, ‘So Alone’ and ‘Not The One’ – but I liked them all – then familiar territory with ‘Smash’ and ‘Self Esteem’. However, after that the band went off for a break for about 5 minutes yet they had only been on stage for 45 minutes!

They returned with ‘Go Far Kid’ though the energy seemed to have dissipated a little after the break but it soon picked up over the next couple of songs. It hit a peak with the classic ‘Get A Job’ with the whole crowd singing – and doing it well (except for the young lady a couple of seats from me who sounded like a tone-deaf hyena on steroids!

Front man Dexter Holland kept the crowd going at all times and maintained a great sense of humour throughout – even blaming us (the audience) for a blown amp about two thirds through ‘Head Around You’. They stopped playing for a few minutes while the techo’s did a bandaid solution, then finished off the last minute of the song. Surprisingly The Offspring went off stage again while the equipment was reconnected then sound-checked. The band returned to the stage and played ‘Kids Aren’t Alright’ then … show over!

The entire gig only went for about 75 minutes – not sure if this is their usual routine but many were disappointed that they weren’t on for a lot longer. I was also surprised that they didn’t play some of their classic songs like ‘Pretty Fly’ and ‘Spare Me The Details’. Overall it was a great gig – they are an exceptional band live – but another 30-60 minutes would have been nice.