NewspaperCrane
Well-Known Member
It's been an interesting couple of years for me music wise. I've never seen this many live shows before... I'd probably be embarrassed to tell you how old I was when I wen to my first concert. Ever since I graduated college I've realized just how epic of a music scene the Chicago area is. I've seen some of my favorite acts come through. I think the culmination of that was a few weeks ago. I told myself when the Offspring was touring Smash this summer, that I was going to make it there. I have vivid memories of listening to the album when I was young (entirely too young in fact). When I say that I was waiting to hear this album live for fifteen years (five less than the album has been out....) I'm not exaggerating. I remember calling my friends, whom were all obsessed with Pretty Fly for a white guy and talking about how much better smash was. I thought Americana was the pop album... and Smash was the real band. To a certain extent I think I was right. I'd later come to appreciate Americana more, but not nearly as much as I love smash. I can quite honestly say that it's my favorite Album.
If you put a gun to my head and made me choose, I think I'd pick the title track of the album as my favorite. "Smash" was practically my theme song in high school. I was obviously not the most popular in school. I was so far down the social order that I was probably counted out as some mathematical anomaly. The lyrics always sung true for me... I always felt better screaming "I'm not a trendy asshole, do what I want, do what I feel like. I'm not a trendy asshole, don't give a fuck, if it's good enough for you, 'cause I am alive." I wanted to relate to the song so bad that I actually (unknowingly) changed the lyrics in my mind so that I could relate to it even more. The opening lyic of the song is "Head over heels I've fit in before... now I don't wanna do it no more." I don't know that I ever felt like I fit in in school... I always thought the line was "Head over heels I've been here before" replacing "Fit in" with "Been here". Subconscious much? I think my favorite part of the song is the end... there were times when I didn't feel like I was good enough to breathe the same air as those around me. That I was that worthless. Well fuck them. I don't live my life to make other people accept me, I don't have to please you because I AM ALIVE.
To see them play live for the first time... and see them play smash... was an amazing experience. It was cold. Raining. I was wearing a bright red poncho, which is probably the most un-punk thing to wear to Riot Fest. Did I give a fuck? No. Probably the most punk thing about me at Riot Fest. Anyways, it was pouring rain, I was standing in a giant pit of of mud... but when those first drums of Nitro hit... there was no where else in the world I would be. I spent the majority of the set Singing (streaming) at the top of my lungs. I've been singing the songs to myself for as long as I can remember... to be in a crowd of thousands singing it too... I can't even describe it. Oddly enough, the only moment in time that I can compare it too was at a concert a few years earlier. I was seeing PowerGlove and mc chris in Chicago. In a packed (see: elbows to assholes) room at the subterranean, to be in a room full of people singing a metal cover of the Pokemon theme is truly an experience. I don't think it was one of those moments where the music is really amazing (in fact the sound in the subterranean can be overwhelming) it was a moment where I felt so connected with the crowd around me via the music... nothing else mattered. They can try to reproduce concerts and live shows as much as they want with live recordings, and blu ray's... but that's the most fantastic feeling in the world.
Seeing Offspring play Smash live was... well... an hour of that feeling. I know every word, every beat, every pause of the album. The band did an excellent job keeping true to the album while giving it that live feel. They probably deserve double kudos for that, since not only have they been playing the music for 20 years now, they've been playing it for every concert all summer, with Chicago being one of the last stops on the tour, that's saying something. Everything was as it should be. The moment that sticks out the most from my knowledge of their music actually doesn't have anything to do with their smash songs. As part of their second half they played "Why don't you get a job?" At the beginning of the second verse of the song the lyric says "My friend's got a boyfriend and she hates that dick." On Americana, there is then a voice which quickly, and unclearly says (It's mine). I of course found the need to shout it at the top of my lungs. I got an odd mixture of the looks. Half "What the fuck are you talking about?" and half "Hell yeah!". You can tell who knows the album.
The one moment which probably transcended all others, happened during the second song of the album. "Bad Habit" is an interesting song of Offspring's. The nature of the song feels more like it should be on their Self Titled Album, rather than on smash, even the pacing and style feels like a hybrid. Towards the end of the song it slows down, and Dexter comes up with the line "Something's wrong... feel like I'm god... YOU STUPID DUMB SHIT GOD DAMN MOTHERFUCKER". When I would listen to music in my room when I was young... well I've always been the kind to rock out. I can distinctly remember always turning the volume down during this line, so not as to alert my mother of any of the true lyrics to what I was listening to (fearing that it would get taken away... See: Blink 182's Enema of the State). Being in a Crowd and instead of turning down the volume so my mom couldn't hear it... we were shouting at the top of our lungs. It's moments like that that you can't pay for. I'm pretty sure I had goosebumps after that, though that may have been the hypothermia setting in from the rain (Good thing I had my Bright Red Poncho)
If you put a gun to my head and made me choose, I think I'd pick the title track of the album as my favorite. "Smash" was practically my theme song in high school. I was obviously not the most popular in school. I was so far down the social order that I was probably counted out as some mathematical anomaly. The lyrics always sung true for me... I always felt better screaming "I'm not a trendy asshole, do what I want, do what I feel like. I'm not a trendy asshole, don't give a fuck, if it's good enough for you, 'cause I am alive." I wanted to relate to the song so bad that I actually (unknowingly) changed the lyrics in my mind so that I could relate to it even more. The opening lyic of the song is "Head over heels I've fit in before... now I don't wanna do it no more." I don't know that I ever felt like I fit in in school... I always thought the line was "Head over heels I've been here before" replacing "Fit in" with "Been here". Subconscious much? I think my favorite part of the song is the end... there were times when I didn't feel like I was good enough to breathe the same air as those around me. That I was that worthless. Well fuck them. I don't live my life to make other people accept me, I don't have to please you because I AM ALIVE.
To see them play live for the first time... and see them play smash... was an amazing experience. It was cold. Raining. I was wearing a bright red poncho, which is probably the most un-punk thing to wear to Riot Fest. Did I give a fuck? No. Probably the most punk thing about me at Riot Fest. Anyways, it was pouring rain, I was standing in a giant pit of of mud... but when those first drums of Nitro hit... there was no where else in the world I would be. I spent the majority of the set Singing (streaming) at the top of my lungs. I've been singing the songs to myself for as long as I can remember... to be in a crowd of thousands singing it too... I can't even describe it. Oddly enough, the only moment in time that I can compare it too was at a concert a few years earlier. I was seeing PowerGlove and mc chris in Chicago. In a packed (see: elbows to assholes) room at the subterranean, to be in a room full of people singing a metal cover of the Pokemon theme is truly an experience. I don't think it was one of those moments where the music is really amazing (in fact the sound in the subterranean can be overwhelming) it was a moment where I felt so connected with the crowd around me via the music... nothing else mattered. They can try to reproduce concerts and live shows as much as they want with live recordings, and blu ray's... but that's the most fantastic feeling in the world.
Seeing Offspring play Smash live was... well... an hour of that feeling. I know every word, every beat, every pause of the album. The band did an excellent job keeping true to the album while giving it that live feel. They probably deserve double kudos for that, since not only have they been playing the music for 20 years now, they've been playing it for every concert all summer, with Chicago being one of the last stops on the tour, that's saying something. Everything was as it should be. The moment that sticks out the most from my knowledge of their music actually doesn't have anything to do with their smash songs. As part of their second half they played "Why don't you get a job?" At the beginning of the second verse of the song the lyric says "My friend's got a boyfriend and she hates that dick." On Americana, there is then a voice which quickly, and unclearly says (It's mine). I of course found the need to shout it at the top of my lungs. I got an odd mixture of the looks. Half "What the fuck are you talking about?" and half "Hell yeah!". You can tell who knows the album.
The one moment which probably transcended all others, happened during the second song of the album. "Bad Habit" is an interesting song of Offspring's. The nature of the song feels more like it should be on their Self Titled Album, rather than on smash, even the pacing and style feels like a hybrid. Towards the end of the song it slows down, and Dexter comes up with the line "Something's wrong... feel like I'm god... YOU STUPID DUMB SHIT GOD DAMN MOTHERFUCKER". When I would listen to music in my room when I was young... well I've always been the kind to rock out. I can distinctly remember always turning the volume down during this line, so not as to alert my mother of any of the true lyrics to what I was listening to (fearing that it would get taken away... See: Blink 182's Enema of the State). Being in a Crowd and instead of turning down the volume so my mom couldn't hear it... we were shouting at the top of our lungs. It's moments like that that you can't pay for. I'm pretty sure I had goosebumps after that, though that may have been the hypothermia setting in from the rain (Good thing I had my Bright Red Poncho)
