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The Offspring + Bodyjar, Something Corporate Jubilee Pavilion, Wayville Showgrounds, Sat 26 June So who exactly was it who thought having one of the greatest punk bands in the world come and play a show in a big concrete and steel box in the freezing cold would be a great idea? The venue sucked, the sound was terrible, the bar was right down the other end of the pavilion and there was a Triple M thing set up out front where people were standing around before the show and in between bands, listening to Outkast and Britney Spears. What the hell? I wasn't exactly bowled over by the support bands either. Frankly, I'd expected more from Something Corporate. They scored a few points by having a piano with them on stage (I'm a big fan of bands who break the usual two guitars/bass/drummer mould), and vocalist/pianist Andrew McMahon definitely took advantage of having such a huge stage to jump around on. But something was lacking, and they kind of just got up, played, and left. As did Bodyjar, who played an entertaining yet unbelievably short set without saying too much at all. The songs they chose were definitely winners with the crowd, such as Hazy Shade Of Winter, 17 Years, Not The Same, and One In A Million. They also had Gordy from Frenzal Rhomb filling in on drums; but after ten years, that seems to be the only change in Bodyjar. They're just the same guys playing the same songs and sounding pretty much just like they did the last fifty times I saw them. Sure, they do it well, but I just wonder when they're going to try something new. Had it not been for The Offspring playing an amazing, near-faultless set, the whole evening would've been a write-off. From the minute they took to the stage to the thundering drums of Neocon the band played impeccably well. They also managed to play a range of songs from all their albums - from The Noose and Hit That from their latest album 'Splinter', to older songs like Come Out And Play, a performance of Bad Habit that really got the crowd going, and an encore of Self Esteem to keep long-time fans happy. The only thing you can really fault The Offspring on was the fact they didn't sound the best, and their entire set was really bass-heavy, but you can hardly blame the band for that, as they made their way through crowd favourites Gone Away, Why Don't You Get A Job and Da Hui. The band's new drummer Atom Willard is really, really good - pounding the drums incredibly hard and frantically trying to keep the rest of the band going as hard and fast as he wanted them to. Both vocalist Dexter Holland and guitarist Noodles interacted well with fans, cracking jokes and moving around the stage - but bassist Greg K always seems to be deep in thought. Or surly. Or bored. I can never tell. But the band definitely saved what would've otherwise been, in this writer's opinion, quite a disaster of an evening.  |
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