Review: Craig Eriksson. Photos: Jason Rosewarne
Wednesday night was one hell of a fun rock n roll show featuring The Offspring on their Supercharged Worldwide in 25’ Tour with Simple Plan at Rod Laver Arena (RLA) in Melbourne.
Melbourne is the rock ‘n’ roll capital of the world and was bustling with music lovers everywhere making their way to see The Offspring at RLA while next door, Margaret Court Arena was hosting ZZ Top on their The Elevation Tour with George Thorogood & the Destroyers. And that my friends is why I live in Melbourne as you can head out and see top quality live music any night of the week.
Canadian pop-punk rockers Simple Plan first formed back in 1999 and are from Montreal, Quebec.
Band members:
Pierre Bouvier – Lead Vocals / Bass guitar
Jeff Stinco – Lead Guitarist
Chuck Comeau – Drums
Sebastien Lefebvre – Rhythm Guitar/Backing vocals
Simple Plan made a grand entrance as they came out on stage with the Star Wars Main Theme playing over the PA. The two guitarists (Jeff & Sebastien) and lead singer (Pierre) stood on risers and launched into the opening track I’D DO ANYTHING followed by their hit song SHUT UP! Right from the get-go they were so energetic, working the stage and engaging well with the crowd. When they sang JUMP they had everyone out of their seats jumping up and down to the song. Lead singer, Pierre Bouvier oozes with charisma and has the audience in the palms of his hands. Pierre shows that he can sing catchy punk anthems as well as heartfelt ballads like the beautiful duet he performed with Erin Reus for JET LAG. As SP played each song, the song title appeared on the cinematic backdrop with song lyrics on some songs too. Crowd favourites were WELCOME TO MY LIFE, ADDICTED and I’M JUST A KID with everyone singing along with passion. Pierre was wearing a tee with I’m Just a Kid an Adult with the back of the tee saying And Life Is A Nightmare. Simple Plan had all the bells and whistles incorporated into their entertaining set. They had confetti cannons, streamers, smoke, giant inflatable beach balls during SUMMER PARADISE, and several people came out on stage dressed in Scooby Doo outfits for WHAT’S NEW SCOOBY DOO? The fast-paced THANK YOU was a ripper. The drummer (Chuck) came out from behind the drums and crowd surfed the moshpit. The show ended with Pierre performing a solo acoustic guitar version of PERFECT with the band joining him half way through the song. The crowd all held up their phones creating a sea of lights that looked incredible as confetti rained over the crowd on the floor.
The 30-minute intermission was an interactive fan experience. The crowd loved it, soaked it up and played along. It started with an Offspring trivia on the big screen with video game visuals. A blimp with the Offspring logo was floating over the crowd which had cameras set up on it and was displaying the crowd on the big screens. They had some hilarious segments with kiss cam (getting crowd members to kiss each other), headbanging cam and booty cam where they’d pick out people in the crowd to get them involved and play along. It really was an effective and fun way of warming the crowd up for The Offspring.
The Offspring is an American punk rock band from California. They formed back in 1984 and their music covers a number of different genres ranging from punk rock, skate rock, melodic hardcore and alt rock. Over their 40-year career they have sold more than 40 million records globally.
Band members:
Bryan ‘Dexter’ Holland – Lead Vocals / guitar
Kevin ‘Noodles’ Wasserman – Lead Guitarist / Backing vocals
Todd Morse – Bassist / Backing vocals
Brandon Pertzborn – Drums
Jonah Nimoy – Multi-instrumentalist (guitar/keys/conga/drums)
The Offspring emerged on stage with AC/DC’s ‘Thunderstruck’ playing over the PA and they launched straight into COME OUT AND PLAY. The crowd went into a wild frenzy and chanted “Keep Em’ Separated”. ALL I WANT and WANT YOU BAD followed and had the crowd rockin’ and in a jovial mood. STARING AT THE SUN was a crowd fave. During the heavy HAMMERHEAD two large inflatable skeleton torsos appeared on each side of the stage.
It was a sold out show and inside RLA it was electric with an enthusiastic, broad bunch of fans ranging from young kids to old punk rockers with mohawks rockin out and singing along. The Offspring play high energy riffs, catchy melodies and rock anthems that are infectious crowd pleasers. Their set list was pretty much a greatest hits show featuring all of their hit songs.
The band’s strong musicianship stood out, especially Brandon on drums. He’s a machine and a driving force that keeps the band powering along with a strong punk-rock energy. Jonah switches effortlessly from keys to percussion to guitar. The crowd went apeshit to ORIGINAL PRANKSTER and rocked out to The Ramones cover BLITZKRIEG BOP. While Dexter had a break, Noodles, Todd and Kevin played a guitar medley of hard rock classics – Deep Purple’s SMOKE ON THE WATER, Black Sabbath’s IRON MAN and KISS’s DETROIT ROCK CITY.
Dexter and Noodles give out friendly banter to each other throughout the show. Their show also had a bit of everything thrown into the mix from confetti cannons, pyros, smoke, streamers, giant inflatable skeletons, fire, inflatable beach balls and wonderful cinematic backscreens. Down in the moshpit, circle pits formed during some of the heavy songs like BAD HABIT along with crowd surfing and body slamming. Noodles did a ‘Fuck Yeah’ chant encouraging the crowd to mimic him which had the crowd in deep laughter.
The Offspring played 3 fan favourites from their Americana album (1998) – PRETTY FLY (FOR A WHITE GUY), WHY DON’T YOU GET A JOB? and THE KIDS AREN’T ALRIGHT. Roadies wheeled out a white piano and Dexter performed a beautiful piano solo of GONE AWAY with the rest of the band joining him towards the end of the song. The rendition was absolutely stunning. They had a short break and came back out for a 2-song encore of YOU’RE GONNA GO FAR, KID and finished with one of their biggest, most popular hits SELF ESTEEM. Dexter thanked fans for their energy, spirit and love.
It was the first time that we had seen both of these bands and we came away feeling pumped with adrenaline. Ah the power of music!
SIMPLE PLAN SET LIST:
I’d Do Anything
Shut Up!
Jump
Jet Lag (duet with Erin Reus)
Addicted
Thank You
Welcome To My Life
Summer Paradise
Take My Hand
Can’t Keep My Hands Off You
What’s New Scooby Doo?
Where I Belong
I’m Just A Kid
Perfect
THE OFFSPRING SET LIST:
Come Out And Play (Keep ‘Em Separated)
All I Want
Want You Bad
Staring at the Sun
Hammerhead
Looking Out For #1
Original Prankster
Bad Habit
Make It All Right (2024)
Smoke On The Water / Iron Man / Detroit Rock City
In the Hall of the Mountain King (Edward Grieg cover)
Blitzkrieg Bop (Ramones cover)
Gotta Get Away
Gone Away
Spare Me The Details
Why Don’t You Get A Job?
Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)
The Kids Aren’t Alright
Encore:
You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid
Self Esteem
