Images: The Offspring, Bad Religion, Pennywise, Stiff Little Fingers August 27, 2014 at The Joint

Dude, 90s nostalgia is hella in. The AV Club just wrapped up a week dedicated to 1994, there are currently two competing 90s some hit wonder tours (featuring Sugar Ray, Smash Mouth and other bands we don’t like to talk about here), there’s a new Clarissa Explains It All book on the way, people are circle pitting again and kids are actually paying money for cassettes. We’re just a Columbia House subscription and a Lori Beth Denberg appearance away from a full blown renaissance! Enter the Summer Nationals Tour – a titanic team up of SoCal punk headlined by my 9^th grade heroes The Offspring – playing 1994’s Smash in its entirety – with Offspring’s Crazy Taxi cohorts Bad Religion and skatepunk staples Pennywise in tow.

Opening up each date of the tour was a band that influenced Offspring, from Naked Raygun to Fear. I know a lot of people were disappointed that the Vandals, who opened the California dates of the tour, weren’t on the Vegas stop, but to that I say “Stiff Little Fingers!” Neither from SoCal nor the 90s (though I’d wager more people in the States know them from being name dropped in 90s John Cusack flick High Fidelity than anything else), I felt lucky to see Stiff Little Fingers at Punk Rock Bowling a few years ago, so a second time is icing on the cake. Unfortunately, the crowd was painfully slim and sedate during songs like “Nobody’s Heroes,” which the band said was older than God, but tracks like “When We Were Young” off their latest album No Going Back, (their first to hit the top 20 on the UK charts in a number of years), sounded great.

Normally headliners themselves, Pennywise and Bad Religion landed in support roles on this tour – and this meant shorter than usual sets – with each band getting about 40 minutes compared to the hour + marathon sessions we’re accustomed to seeing from them. Given that time crunch, I found it refreshing that, for the most part, the bands abstained from just playing the hits. Pennywise playing “My Own Way” (which they dedicated to recently deceased skateboard legend Jay Adams) instead of “Alien” or Bad Religion playing “Supersonic” instead of “Sorrow” (even though I freaking love “Sorrow”) was a nice change of pace. But despite digging a little deeper into their respective catalogs, Pennywise’s and Bad Religion’s sets were about as different from one another as SNICK was to TGIF.

Once again fronted by punk rock dad Jim Lindberg, every Pennywise song had a little intro or aside, such as dedicating “Same Old Story” to Lindberg’s father, splitting the crowd in half and then pitting them against each other to see who was the loudest before playing “Fuck Authority,” or guitarist Fletcher Dragge’s Dr. Cox-ian condemnation of Hugh Jackman’s 8 pack abs before “Perfect People.” It was all a little hokey, but fun all the same.

Bad Religion, on the other hand, were the stoic elder statesmen. Frontman Greg Graffin was looking mighty distinguished with his undyed, grey hair (no doubt brought upon due to jealousy of noted silverfox/BR bassist Jay Bentley). The band packed as many songs as possible into their set and sounded great doing it. “Fuck Armageddon… This Is Hell,” “Stranger Than Fiction” and “Infected” all sounded great, but it was the tracks from Suffer that truly stood out. Graffin proclaimed that people shouldn’t be so nostalgic since the past wasn’t as great as we remember before proving himself slightly wrong by launching into what he called “selections from Suffer,” which included “You Are (The Government),” “1000 More Fools,” “How Much Is Enough?,” “Best for You” and “Do What You Want,” the latter getting the biggest sing along of their set. It was particularly cool seeing some very young kids, probably under 13, decked out in BR shirts and pogoing along.

While I primarily came out to this show for Bad Religion, I felt my excitement for Offspring grow as soon as the giant Smash cover was pulled as a backdrop, a move that resulted in applause so thunderous it would have made Savage Steve Holland proud. As an angry, white, suburban kid in the 90s, Offspring played a huge part in me becoming the kind of music fan I am today, but it had been just a few days over ten years since the last time I saw them. I’m not that into most of their post-Ixnay singles and being the kind of band they are, the singles are what one can normally expect at their shows, so this complete Smash show was perfect for me (and the other 4000 people in attendance). The set opened with Smash spoken word intro track “Time to Relax,” though modified to let us know to “fuck shit up.” Then the band burst onto the stage with “Nitro (Youth Energy),” arguably their best song, and the crowd went nuts. The lighting was ace during the band’s set and having at this point moved to the back, I had the perfect vantage point for seeing the 11 or 12 mini pits forming across the venue like hurricanes of pent up aggression. This show was also a 90s throwback night in terms of fights – I had to stop a 50 year old man from drunkenly beating someone up for bumping into him. That’s something I definitely don’t miss about shows in the 90s.

Offspring played through Smash with few surprises, but they sounded good doing it. They dragged out the epic foul language of “Bad Habit” so every person in attendance had the chance to sing along with frontman/hot sauce mogul Dexter Holland, utilized a smoke machine to make things seem a little more Kevin Smith-esq during ska-influenced track “What Happened to You?” (“I don’t know why this always happens when we play reggae,” Holland joked) and moved the album’s biggest single, “Self Esteem” to the end. Listening to songs like “Self-Esteem” and other single “Gotta Get Away,” it’s not hard to see why Smash remains the highest selling independent album of all time. Those songs in particular have just as much in common with Nirvana as they do Bad Religion, and throw in a little of their trademark, irreverent humor and it’s a winning combo. The encore was a mix of the band’s jokier singles, including an acoustic take on “Why Don’t You Get a Job?,” and faster tracks like the Bad Religion-esq “All I Want,” which is my favorite Offspring track.

Before playing the Smash’s title track, Holland and guitarist Noodles broke the news that this would “probably” be the last time they played Smash front to back in Vegas. That “probably” has me crossing all fingers and toes that the Sterns are able to land this tour as headliners for next year’s Punk Rock Bowling, just so I can see it all again. Shwing!

-Emily Matview

Photos by Aaron Mattern | https://www.flickr.com/photos/akmofoto/

Offspring setlist:

Time to Relax
Nitro (Youth Energy)
Bad Habit
Gotta Get Away
Genocide
Something to Believe In
Come Out and Play
It’ll Be a Long Time
Killboy Powerhead (Didjits cover)
So Alone
What Happened to You?
Not the One
Smash
Self Esteem
Intermission
Americana
All I Want
(Can’t Get My) Head Around You
Why Don’t You Get a Job?
You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid
Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)
The Kids Aren’t Alright

Bad Religion setlist:

Fuck Armageddon… This Is Hell
Supersonic
Anesthesia
Stranger Than Fiction
I Want to Conquer the World
21st Century (Digital Boy)
Big Bang
Generator
Sometimes I Feel Like
Struck a Nerve
Skyscraper
You Are (The Government)
1000 More Fools
How Much Is Enough?
Best for You
Do What You Want
Infected
American Jesus

Pennywise setlist:

Pennywise
Rules
My Own Country
Same Old Story
My Own Way
Blitzkrieg Bop (Ramones cover)
Restless Time
Perfect People
Fuck Authority
Society
Bro Hymn

Stiff Little Fingers setlist:

Suspect Device
Wasted Life
At the Edge
Doesn’t Make It Alright
(The Specials cover)
When We Were Young
Nobody’s Hero
Tin Soldiers
Alternative Ulster