With seven albums under its belt, The Offspring hit the road again this year to promote its latest album Splinter, stopping at Mesa Amphitheater, Tuesday night. The small crowd showed The Offspring's old age, but for The Offspring, size didn't seem to matter.
The newest addition to the band, drummer Atom Willard, got the crowd going with some hard bass hits when The Offspring broke out onto the stage playing "Neocon" and "The Noose" from its newest album,
The crowd didn't get into the show, which had an early 8 o'clock start, until The Offspring pulled out the old stuff, playing "All I want" from its album Ixnay on the Hombre.
The mostly 16- to 21-year-old crowd began to push and shove, turning the front of the audience into a moshing and crowd-surfing extravaganza. The old and young were quickly weeded out into the outer portions of the seats as The Offspring mixed their old school punk with the new-age progressive punk sound on its latest release.
Dexter Holland kept the crowd alive, by telling them they were far better than the crowd the previous night. Aside from those few inspirational words, The Offspring stuck to playing music, burning through 20 songs in less than an hour and a half. Of the 20, seven were from Splinter.
The Offspring gave the crowd a weak goodbye and finished the night off with "(Can't Get My) Head Around You", "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)" and the band's icon song "Self Esteem."
The Offspring will bring its punk show to Tucson on May 9 for KFMA day at the Pima County Fairgrounds.