A freezing cold evening with half the population of Scotland glued to their TV screens or sat in another venue elsewhere in Glasgow, but we were headed to the Hydro so I could see The Offspring for the first time since (I think) 1997.
As a bonus, openers Simple Plan were in my sights as I’d missed them supporting Bowling For Soup five years ago. Due to weather issues and the bands arriving late in town, my interview schedule was rejigged so I was talking to people while the Canadian pop-punkers did their business. By all accounts they were good then so I was looking forward to tonight.
After a slight delay picking up our tickets (resolved by the amazing PR staff that we deal with), we made it into the venue just as they were coming on stage to the theme from Star Wars. Simple Plan wasted no time in throwing down riffs and jumping straight into the catchy numbers with “I’d Do Anything” and “Shut Up!”
The sound was good and the light show pretty damn decent for a support act. They certainly didn’t look out of place on an arena stage with singer Pierre Bouvier in particular happy to stride around and engage with the huge audience that had turned up to see them. There were definitely a few Simple Plan fans out there and they were happy to join in with the instruction to “Jump” as the set really got underway.
The somewhat more mellow “Your Love Is A Lie” backed into “Nothing Changes” and a chance for the band to plug their documentary The Kids In The Crowd (streaming on Prime now, folks!) from which the new song is taken. It’s as good a song as they’ve ever done, catchy and self-referential.
An oversized beach ball was flung into the crowd (I think they got it back) as the second half of the set ran through more favourites, the highlight almost certainly being “What’s New Scooby Doo?” Multiple costumed Scoobies (I believe drafted from the fans / audience) ran around throwing Scooby Snacks into the audience while one white-shirted “Fred” joined them. Apparently that was The Offspring’s Noodles, if I picked up on what Pierre said correctly!
Twenty five years in and Simple Plan are definitely capable of putting on a great live show. I’d definitely go and see then play their own headline show based on tonight’s performance.
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Rounding off their touring commitments for 2025 tonight (though they’ve announced a huge London show for 2026), The Offspring know how to keep an audience entertained. There was no simple canned music being played between sets, they had a blimp out over the audience with a camera on it. Celebrity lookalikes, kiss-cam, fuck-off cam… if there is a cam that makes audienced laugh, they used it. One pair of fans were even upgraded to (I think) stage-side!
Despite this being the Supercharged tour, only two songs featured from the recent release in their over-90-minute set which was a bit of a surprise but not an unwelcome one. After all, with such a strong back catalogue, most fans will have been here for the favourites. So even if the new material is good (and it is), it was well used rather than the focus. I’m just glad one of them was “Make It Alright”!
While ramming in classics like “Self Esteem”, “Want You Bad”, “Gotta Get Away” and the chaotic “Bad Habit”, a surprising amount of the set was filled with sidesteps and covers. While we all know they covered The Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Sedated”, they also threw in some Ozzy tribute material. Noodles noodled a bit of “Electric Funeral” and “Paranoid” before Randy Rhoads’ name was also dropped. Cue that famous intro, the audience without being asked blasting out the initial “Aye, aye aye!” and a rendition of “Crazy Train” that honestly brought a tear to the eye. To be such a big band playing such a big show and to be able to throw in a song like that with the audience 100% behind it is testament to how influential Ozzy and Rhoads were. It was great to see the band’s newest “official” member, Jonah Nimoy, come stage front to play the solo, too. He impressed throughough playing guitar, keys, tamourine, maraccas, drums…
There was plenty of chatter to the audience as well, perhaps a bit too much in one go at times if I’m being picky, and so many “wow” moments. The video wall behind the band frequently picked out people in the crowd – hats off to the girl on her fella’s shoulders dressed up perfectly for “Pretty Fly For A White Guy”!
As the gig pushed towards the final segment (and coincidentally unfortunately timed as at about this point Scotland qualified for the World Cup so pockets of the crowd were looking for something more upbeat) a piano was deposited on stage for a wonderful spine-tingling rendition of “Gone Away”, one of my own personal favourite Offspring tracks. The simple thought of linking each of the phone lights being held up by members of the audience to the memory of a special someone who is no longer with us was poignant and perfect. Credit to the celebrating football fans, they held their “No Scotland, no party” chants down until after the song finished so that this moment wasn’t spoiled.
Throw in a dozen or more huge inflatable balls, that blimp drone, multiple streamer and confetti cannon moments, those amazing inflatable skeletons… oh, and a meticulously hand-picked setlist, and this was a brilliant way for them to round off that tour.
A moment of honesty. When I saw the band back in 1997/98 or whenever it was, at the Manchester Apollo, I actually remember leaving feeling a little let down. They played the songs, but that was it. I mean, they were OK, but the show was missing something. Tonight more than made up for that. This, I feel, is what the band probably always wanted to do – but now they have the backing to do it. This was a lesson in how to put on an arena show and I didn’t see a single person leaving who wasn’t smiling as much as I was (though I’m sure some of them were smiling twice as much due to the Hampden result).
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All photos by Federica Burelli
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