The Offspring, Jimmy Eat World, & New Found Glory — all in one night in St. Louis

St. Louis has been having one hell of a summer with the amount of bands coming through, especially all of our returning favorites from the last few decades! Mid-August, this midwest town was granted another epic show, this time the nostalgic punk-pop days of the 90s and naughts with a visit from The Offspring while on their Supercharged Worldwide Tour. Joining The Offspring were New Found Glory and Jimmy Eat World, a terrific duo to kick off the night leading into The Offspring’s memorable chaos. 

The show opened with New Found Glory, taking the stage for another hot evening at the Hollywood Casino Amphitheater. They jumped right into it with “Understatement”, the first of songs from their 2002 album, Sticks And Stones. Despite being the first performance of the evening, New Found Glory brought the energy, encouraging fans to stand up and jam out with them. Considering they released their first album in 1999, New Found Glory has been continuously creating punk-pop/punk-rock culture with 13 albums in 26 years under their belt. In fact, their most recent single “100%” was released this past April!

The lively angst we adore flooded the venue and kept speed with Jimmy Eat World next.

Heads banged in unison singing “Let It Happen” and other crowd favorites, taking concert-goers right back to the era of filming our friends skateboarding with actual video recorders (since our flip phones couldn’t) and wearing those classic checkered wristbands. Jimmy Eat World finalized their performance with their biggest hit (and a forever favorite of mine), “The Middle” — the staple from their 2001 album, Bleed American. It was an excellent Jimmy Eat World send-off and a perfect transition into The Offspring’s set. 

The intermission before The Offspring was an entire performance in itself that few anticipated, yet all appreciated. I can’t say I have ever seen a band put so much devotion and build up into a concert before, but let me tell you, I was absolutely there for it. While fans waited, wiping the sweat from their brows and making their way to their final beer runs, interactive videos played on the massive screens above the stage, encouraging audience engagement with kiss cams and middle finger cams, not to mention a gorilla masked man dancing and launching t-shirts into the crowd of screaming fans.

As a large blimp hovered above the audience, the lights dimmed and the punk rock party could finally commence. 

Like the title of their newest album, fans were supercharged and ready to rock out to The Offspring’s 26-song set, starting things off with an epic cover of AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” with Noodles, their lead guitarist, demonstrating his incredible musical talent. For a punk rock band that’s been performing since 1984, you wouldn’t have any idea 40 years of time have passed with how much energy and life The Offspring put into this performance. I had to take frequent breaks from all of the dancing and head-banging, but The Offspring just kept at it — each song adding a different punch from the last. And just when you thought things were slowing down, two massive skeletons began to inflate on either side of the stage, like they had clawed themselves out from their own graves.

Lead vocalist Dexter Holland outdid himself, giving the audience his absolute best and then some. He and Noodles shared this wonderful camaraderie, cracking jokes and making jabs between each song at each other, adding their humor as additional entertainment to an already explosive event.

It was like seeing a concert, stand-up comedy show, and a circus all wrapped into one. 

I find that there is always this double-edged sword to seeing live shows of the bands from our youth: we love the nostalgia and getting to revisit the music we heard as adolescents, but recognize with time that the performers we love have changed and do age just as we do. The music may be the same, but the energy isn’t going to always be what it used to be. Well, I am happy to say that there was no double-edged sword this evening. The Offspring and openers gave terrific performances, proving that punk was never a phase. With that being said, time to “dance, fucker, dance”.

Photography by Sean Rider; article by Michelle Zigler

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