The Offspring - A Supercharged Return to Newcastle

Photography By Federica Burelli

A sea of vans paired with a long-sleeve top under a band t-shirt (me included) streamed into Newcastle’s Utilita Arena last Saturday (15th November) as The Offspring returned to the city for the first time in decades for their Supercharged Worldwide Tour. This somewhat felt like a homecoming for the Newcastle fans after waiting so long for a return headline, and joined by special guests Simple Plan, this really was a special one. 

The anticipation was massive for both bands amongst the crowd who had filled up nice and early for the appearance of Simple Plan to warm up the vocal chords of the listeners before the headliners. Arriving on stage to the Star Wars theme tune after the arena had played a run of some pop punk classics, Simple Plan injected the crowd with a high energy performance as if it was their own headline show. 

Opening up their set with ‘I’d Do Anything’ and then playing fan favourites such as ‘I’m Just A Kid’, ‘Welcome To My Life’ really set the tone, but I do think most will agree that the highlight of their set was the blast of nostalgia we all got from ‘What’s New Scooby-Doo?’. This happened towards the end which was accompanied by a number of Scooby-Doo onesie wearing extras running around the stage. 

Photography By Federica Burelli

The fun didn’t start or stop with Scooby-Doo though as for the song ‘Summer Paradise’ the band threw a giant blow up ball into the crowd which then prompted the release a number of balls to be bobbing through the standing crowd for the song - they did impressively all get returned for the next song starting! 

Drummer, Chuck, wore a Newcastle United shirt which had mixed reaction for the crowd but everyone banned together, no matter their football alliances, as he crowd surfed for the song ‘I’m Just a Kid’ while Pierre played drums. Their own confetti cannons closed off their set which is unusual for a support slot but really makes the “special guest”, as this was advertised, stand out more. 

What came next was the interval I have ever had as a gig goer. It was surprisingly short at only twenty five minutes but that felt like nothing as there was entertainment throughout rather than the usual lights up, music playing in the background and everyone talking. It started off with an on-screen countdown with the skeletons dancing to music and then the balloon plane was released over standing which had a camera on the bottom picking out people in the pit. On screen, we had various ‘tasks’ which included Kiss Cam, Celebrity look-alike and Booty Cam. Gorilla Guy, The Offspring's mascot, was in the pit too and even gave out a free upgrade to a lucky pair in the seats. 

Photography By Federica Burelli

This got the crowd excited and then with a ten second on-screen countdown to really set the tension, The Offspring arrived on stage and started it all off with ‘Come Out and Play’. Their performance was full of fast, high-energy songs that simultaneously blend punk rock, pop punk and rock together but still with streaks of a melodic style. Dexter’s vocals were clean and strong throughout the whole performance but he still released that sneering pop punk sound when needed. Brandon and Noodles both got their own solos but I must say that Brandon’s drum solo was the one that impressed me the most and I think the crowd too - it was  magnificent and really hit you in the guts. 

The band showed off their influences with a cover of ‘I Wanna Be Sedated’ by Ramones and this is the only cover the audience was treated to. There was a whole section of three songs dedicated to Ozzy Osbourne. It started off as a bit of Noodles ADHD and how he can only remember a small amount of a song, which fell into the opening on Black Sabbath’s ‘Electric Funeral’, then into ‘Paranoid’ which then turn into a great rendition of ‘Crazy Train’ from the whole band and sent the crowd into a frenzy. 

Photography By Federica Burelli

There was a more mellow section to the performance when a piano appeared and Dexter sang a stripped back version of ‘Gone Away’ after opening up about the meaning of the song. This did come after Brandon’s drum solo, so this was a real change in the set after what had been energetic up until this point. Also on the piano, we had the final cover which was ‘Hey Jude’ by The Beatle. As a massive NUFC fan myself, I don’t think I was alone in singing ‘Hey Geordies’ for the chorus - or maybe I was! I don’t think this was done intentionally looking at other tour night setlists, but I love it nonetheless. 

The other thing the band didn’t scrimp on was the staging. There was always something to look at on stage, whether this be the graphics on the backing screen, blow up skeletons framing the stage for a section or even having the plane flying around showing the crowd on the back screen for “You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid” - it was great! If any criticism could be made, it’s that there was a lot of chat that sometimes felt rehearsed and possibly went on for too long between songs. That being said, the crowd for this show was fantastic and even for the more toned down song, they gave the band their all and it looked like a great crowd to be in!

All in all, it was a great night and hopefully the band don’t leave it so long before coming back again but I am sure anyone there on the night will now be excited about their newly announced show at Crystal Palace Park next June.

Photography By Federica Burelli

Article By Neave Farry