Live Review- The Offspring- 14th November 2025.

The O2 Arena, London. UK.

My wife and I went to the O2 Arena in London yesterday to catch The Offspring, a band both of us enjoyed throughout our younger years and who still put on a good show, back when we saw them in Brixton (I initially thought this was a few years ago, but having checked, it was 2015. How time flies!).

The opening band was Simple Plan, who appeared to have a large following in the arena, which was close to full throughout their set.

My wife is a big fan of the band, and whilst I was familiar with some of the songs, she was much more aware of them all than me.

They did play an energetic set of pop-punk, and were on stage for around an hour, so it was a good length set for an opener.

Looking round the arena, although there were many fans in their 40s, like us, there were also many younger ones, including some that had been brought by parents.

There was a girl in front of us who must of been 12-14 but seemed to know all the words to each song and was jumping and singing along (with parents also joining in), and seeming in awe of the band playing before her. She wasn’t sitting texting about it or viewing through her phone and I saw a couple of instances like this. It was great to see younger people really enjoying and connecting with live music and just enjoying the moment.

From the spot we were in, the sound for their set did sound a little bass-heavy but it was an enjoyable way to start the evening.

Following the culmination of their set, there was a short break, whilst the stage was set for The Offspring, with various ‘cams’ capturing audience moments and someone in a gorilla costume bouncing around from the stage to the seated areas in amongst the fans, before finally a clock appeared, counting down the last two minutes before The Offspring hit the stage.

Lead singer/guitarist Dexter Holland, chief guitarist Noodles, these days accompanied by Todd Morse on bass, Brandon Pertzborn on drums and Jonah Nimoy across a variety of instruments, took their places and opened with a rather blistering ‘Come Out and Play’ from the ‘Smash’ album which largely catapulted them into public consciousness, in terms of getting the crowd into it, the choice was an excellent one, immediately leading to frenetic dancing and moshing as well as a crowd singing along.

It was a great opener and brought back memories of times when this one was in regular rotation on MTV when I was much younger.

‘All I Want’ from the follow-up album ‘Ixnay On the Hombre’ was next and kept the mood upbeat and the crowd in full thrall of the band, who were in full swing pretty early. The first track from 2000’s ‘Conspiracy of One’ album, ‘Want You Bad’, was next and the fans were fully engaged, and bouncing throughout, as a triple-whammy of fan-favourites ensured a high level of energy throughout the arena.

The latest Offspring album, last year’s ‘Supercharged’, gave this tour its name, so I was expecting a few songs from that album.

As it turned out, there wasn’t that many on the night, but the next one was one of the singles released from that album, ‘Looking Out For #1’.

On the LP, I feel like it seemed like a more slick attempt to capture the sound of previous hits and didn’t do too much for me, though in a live setting it did sound to have a more vibrant edge (front-man Holland’s voice particularly good on this one), though, perhaps expectedly, the audience in attendance were less enthralled by this than what had come before.

The title track of 2021’s ‘Let The Bad Times Roll’ followed, to similar audience reception, but zipped along nicely with the band seeming like a well-oiled machine.

The tempo picked up with a trip to the band’s hugely popular, late ‘90’s ‘Americana’ album, with ‘Staring At The Sun’. The song, with its increasing pace and frenetic feel, firmly had those in attendance bouncing along again and the band themselves seemed very enthusiastic and into this one.

A shortened version of 2003’s ‘Hit That’, a catchy number, and a tale about potential perils of promiscuity, teenage pregnancies and taking responsibility in those situations, from the ‘Splinter’ album was up next.

I’m not sure too many were paying attention to the content of the lyrics but it did cause much dancing and singing along with the chorus.

For a band in its fourth decade, The Offspring still seemed to be having a great deal of fun on stage and didn’t seem to be flagging, as they then went into another which received a great deal of airplay, ‘Original Prankster’ and then ‘Hammerhead’ from their album ‘Days of Rage and Grace’, which was preceded by two huge inflatable giant skeletons appearing at each side of the stage, where they remained for a large portion of the set.

I wasn’t overly familiar with this one, but thought it chugged along with impressive power and although it may not have been a crowd-favourite, I found it to be very well done (it almost put me in the mind of The Offspring’ having an attempt at an Alice Cooper song).

A second (and what would be final) visit to the newest album followed with ‘Make It All Right’, which I think tries to meld the classic Offspring sound with a modern pop vibe. I’m not sure it hits the mark 100%, but was a decent change of pace and direction, almost allowing the fans to catch their breath before following it up with a raucous ‘Bad Habit’, which led to frantic audience participation.

The band stopped mid-song and seemed to take a moment to absorb the noise and their surroundings, possibly marvelling at the fact they are still selling out arenas of this size after so long, or perhaps just taking time to catch a breather.

They bantered a little with the audience, before prepping them to join in on the song’s sweariest refrain, which everyone did before the song was brought to a thrilling end.

Following this came a section of covers, some dedicated to the late Ozzy Osbourne, with the band performing a portion of Black Sabbath’s ‘Electric Funeral’ and ‘Paranoid’, following it up with the Osbourne solo number ‘Crazy Train’, which was nicely done.

Singer Holland left the stage as Noodles handled band introductions and asked for the audience to applaud the fact that the front-man had recently completed a PHD in molecular biology.

The guitarist then led a sojourn into Edvard Grieg’s ‘In The Hall of The Mountain King’ , building in speed as it went, before reaching a dizzying, incredibly fast climax.

Holland’s return to the stage was then followed by a rendition of The Ramones’ ‘I Wanna Be Sedated’ (including the return of the pre-show ‘gorilla’ onstage, with a sign, requesting sedation), which rounded off this set of covers, as the band head back into their own territory, with a blistering version of ‘Gotta Get Away’.

The end of this song saw the inflatable skeletons disappear, while Pertzborn delivered an impressive drum solo.

There’s a change in tempo and mood for the next number, ‘Gone Away’, which was originally on the ‘Ixnay On The Hombre’ album as a track in the traditional style of the band, but was reworked on their more recent album ‘Let The Bad Times Roll’ as a piano ballad, ruminating on grief and someone loved, no longer here.

Dexter Holland, now sat at a white piano, introduced it as such, and the crowed were hushed for his words. He dedicated the song to that person no longer with us and urged the audience to think of lost loved-ones too, as he played, praising the healing power of music.

The crowd were quieter for this one, but gently sang along as screens were held up (at Holland’s request), during what felt like a genuinely moving portion of the evenings’ set. The song did briefly spark into a flash of its original, full-band form before culminating with just singer and piano, once more.

The mood is lifted, and the crowd is then invited to join in as the band perform a final cover, Holland making use of being at the piano by performing a version of The Beatles classic ‘Hey Jude’, which was well-received (a British crowd at most events will join in with the ‘na na na nas’ at the end, so audience participation was a given, here).

After this, it was back to business as usual, as a swathe of hits was left for the final run, with a triple-whammy from ‘Americana’ seeing ‘Why Don’t You Get A Job’, and then crowd favourite ‘Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)’ before my own favourite Offspring song, ‘The Kids Aren’t Alright’ made an appearance, and it was a truly fantastic rendition.

‘You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid’ followed, with those watching fully absorbed, before a forceful and anthemic version of ‘Self Esteem’ brought proceedings to a close that had everyone dancing and bouncing and sent everyone home, happy.

Bands like The Offspring are not everyone’s cup of tea, but even though there may have been a couple of occasions when Dexter Holland couldn’t hit the notes quite as high as he once did (and my wife did think that maybe reducing the number of cover songs and playing a couple more of their own would have added to the experience), it was a fun night watching a band who clearly still enjoy what they are doing, and I think that those in attendance were all more than satisfied, with what was served up.

Sometimes, music is just about listening and taking you out of the day-to-day trials and tribulations, and just kicking back, singing and dancing along and having a couple of hours where there is just that. On that score, I would say that the show was an overwhelming success.

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