The Offspring at Brixton Academy

The Offspring – The Brixton Academy – 25 Aug 2009

Support from: Broadway Calls and Rival Schools

Words by Brendan Monteiro / Photos by Daniel Gray with permission from www.chasingsafety.co.uk

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It’s 6pm on an average london day and sitting on the steps of the Brixton Academy, I catch a glimpse of a a chav looking girl walking past the entrance to have a glance at the upcoming shows. “Who the F*ck is all dees people that no one gives a F*ck about, dis is supposed ta be Brixtion, supposed ta be for black people” she mutters, but the long winding queue of fans around the corner waiting for The Offspring kind of contradicts her just a little I would say.

All fans in the safety of the non chavvy Academy and soon enough Broadway Calls are firing off shots of punk fury at any one bearing a set of ears, they start the set off with To The Sheets, with it’s rip roaring melody it certainly gets me listening. The entire band puts it all into their live performance, Ty musters every ounce of emotion into his voice, Josh rattles every loose fitting in the venue with his solid drumming. Next up in the proceedings is New York’s Rival Schools. As with the opening band there is not much attention from the audience, which is really sad as they do a good job of their time on stage, with new song 69 Guns really standing out, keep an eye out for their upcoming release.

Thunderous sounds and flashing lights from well constructed and illuminated rigs make for a good entrance, Noodles cranks straight into Shit Is Fucked Up and so begins an hour and a half of non stop action from the Californian punk veterans. The setlist encompasses pretty much all of their 20 or so years. Bad Habit is the first crowd pleaser, its riot inducing lyrics take me back to time when all I wanted to do was stick a middle finger to anyone in a position of authority, and tonight as the whole venue screams in unison “You stupid goddam motherfucker!” all those old feelings start to resurface. From this moment on it doesn’t feel like the crowd or the band dies down at all for the remainder of the set, kids and old timers alike are screaming and moshing about to classics like Come Out And Play, Have You Ever and All I want. The energy in the crowd and onstage builds and builds. Dexter has all his past hits at his disposal but I find myself equally interested in the new maturer material like Kristy, Are You Doing Okay? and Gone Away which is impressively done entirely by Dexter on piano. Noodles is on fire as always and Im pretty certain the man cannot play a wrong note even if he tried, on top of that, it’s great to see that with all the success he has had, he still manages to support other bands, sporting a True Sounds Of Liberty shirt. Pete Parada, formerly from Face To Face is in control of the rhythm section with the added help of Greg K, and in control they are. Pete might not have been in the band for that long but he definitely seems to have fitted right in and pounds away non stop. The songs fly by with the unlikely suprise appearance of INTERMISSION and soon enough it’s the encore. Hammerhead’s ferocious riff’s rip a whole through my ears and once again my head is off on it’s own little mission.

Before I know what’s happened Want you Bad is over and they pretty much rolling to the end of Self Esteem and the feeling of sadness inside me is almost tangible. With time speeding so fast and good times had all around it’s hard not to feel a little sad that it’s all over and all that looms is the long wait until these legends grace our shores again

Setlist:

Shit Is Fucked Up
Bad Habit
You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid
Come Out and Play (Keep ‘Em Separated)
A Million Miles Away
Have You Ever
Staring At The Sun
Gone Away
Kristy, Are You Doing Okay?
INTERMISSION
Americana
Hit That
Half-Truism
Why Don’t You Get A Job?
All I Want
Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)
(Can’t Get My) Head Around You
The Kids Aren’t Alright