Live Review: The Offspring - AO Arena, Manchester 29/11/21

Veteran US punks return to Manchester with a career-spanning set that proves just why they’re still around almost 40 years since their inception.

When Californian punks The Offspring announced they were playing an arena tour, I wasn’t all that optimistic. After all, Manchester Arena is one of the biggest venues in Europe. It’s also one of the most soulless. These worries were compounded when heading down the stairs to the venue’s floor, several areas of the lower tier seating was covered – a sure sign of low ticket sales.

Of course, there is little in the way of middle ground in Manchester between the 2000 and 20,000 capacity venues, so it does make sense. There’s just no denying that sight of so many empty seats is a little disheartening.

What the crowd lacks in numbers (though there’s still several thousand present) it more than makes up for in volume and energy. Any initial worries prove unfounded from the moment the house lights drop and the band take to the stage to a welcoming roar.

Beginning with a trifector of early cuts in the form of ‘Staring At the Sun’, ‘Come Out and Play’ and ‘Want You Bad’, it’s clear from the outset that tonight isn’t so much a tour in support of their new album, but more a celebration of the band that just so happens to come after said album’s release.

Indeed, the only tracks on offer from this year’s Let the Bad Times Roll both come early and in the form of ‘The Opioid Diaries’ and the eponymous title-track, with both stymying the pace of those initial first moments somewhat. Thankfully it’s a short-lived lull in proceedings, and the pace is quickly picked up in the form of ‘Hit That’ and ‘Bad Habit’.

A mid-set break sees lead guitarist Noodles provide a guitar-based medley of rock classics, and while at least one member of the audience sees this as gimmicky, loudly complaining about ‘paying to hear Offspring songs’, it provides the band, and indeed the crowd, with some brief respite.

And it is brief. An instrumental version of ‘Hall of the Mountain King’ soon follows, making the track seem far cooler than Grieg, or indeed Alton Towers, ever could. That’s followed quickly by early single ‘Gotta Get Away’ and a piano-led version of ‘Gone Away’, which provides the evening’s only sombre occasion.

Before fans even have time to put away the phones that lit the arena for the previous track, the band launch into fan-favourite ‘Why Don’t You Get A Job’, and the normal service of mosh pits, crowd surfers and spilled beer is instantly resumed.

Even if you hadn’t grown up having been turned onto alternative music by the likes of ‘Want You Bad’, it’s surprising just how much of the band’s material you probably know, and tonight’s last quarter proves just that. With the likes of ‘Original Prankster’, ‘Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)’ and a raucous rendition of ‘The Kids Aren’t Alright’ all coming towards the end. While the ever-predictable encore sees them round off the night with ‘You’re Gonna Go Far Kid’ and ‘Self Esteem’.

Of course, with a career that now spans nearly 40 years, you’re never going to please everyone with your setlist. Tonight must comes close however. Deeper cuts are, more naturally, left off the setlist in favour of the crowd-pleasers, but it works wonders for the atmosphere in a room that could realistically have sold much better. And regardless of what one might think of the band’s more recent material, there’s a reason they’re still releasing music and playing arenas four decades down the line. They’re bloody good at what they do, and tonight is a testament to that.