The Offspring, Shiny Toy Guns, Street Dogs – Live (June 13, 2009)

Let the summer of junior high begin.

Offspring, Green Day, No Doubt, and Blink182 – bands that were at the top of their game back when I was in junior high all happen to be coming through Edmonton within a span of a month and a half; and I, for one, can’t wait to see them all.

Kicking off the summer of past memories last night was SoCal’s Offspring, touring in support of their recent released (and return to form album), Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace. Opening with Stuff is Messed Up, the air was bristling with excitement has Dexter Holland walked across the stage. By this time the the giant barn-like structure that is the Agricom was filled with close to 5,000 fans waiting to see the band on their first North American tour in four years – and they did not disappoint.

Twenty-five years into their career, Holland and his band mates haven’t lost a step as they played through their massive catalogues of hits from the ages. From Self Esteem to You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid, the performance had a cohesive sensation to it, making you forget the fifteen year period between singles. The band kept their trademark humor that landed them singles like Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)and Original Prankster – the later of which was mysteriously absent from the play list – as Holland thanked the crowd for making them rich, invited everyone out drinking and demanded respect for being a true musician as he sat in front of a piano to play Gone Away (and a cover of the famed Peanuts theme song). The comical highlight came from the Intermission portion of the evening where the band left the stage which was replaced by jugglers, beach balls, a stage hand getting people to dance with the country-fair music and, of course, a giant dancing hot dog being displayed on the screen. They may be twenty-five years into their career, but their sense of humor has far from changed.

Setlist:

Stuff Is Messed Up
Bad Habit
Come out and Play
You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid
Walla Walla
Have You Ever
Staring At The Sun
Gone Away (Piano)
Kristy, Are You Doing Okay?
Half-Truism
Intermission
Americana
Genocide
Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)
Why Don’t You Get A Job
All I Want
The Kids Aren’t Alright

ENCORE

Want You Bad
Self Esteem

Opening for them were Boston’s Street Dogs and Oklahoma’s Shiny Toy Guns. The Street Dogs were almost able to steal the show, despite Mike McColgan calling us Calgary five times throughout Final Transmission before his band mates quickly corrected him. Playing drinking songs (Tobe’s Got A Drinking Problem) mixed with working class anthem (Kevin J. O’Toole, Two Angry Kids), The Street Dogs had control over the crowd almost as if they were the headliner at times and showed a true blue-collar punk rock show. Shiny Toy Guns however were on the completely wrong tour as their synth-heavy indie-pop would be better suited for a Metric show then The Offspring and felt out of place sandwiched between two high energy outfits like The Street Dogs and The Offspring.