The Offspring Live in Cardiff 2025
Bouncing beach balls, a blimp, inflatable sky puppets, giant skeletons, confetti as well as crowd-pleasing intermission entertainment. It was all part of The Offspring experience at Utilita Arena Cardiff this week.
And that’s before you even get to the music. Lead singer and main song writer Dexter Holland, has a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology. Lead guitarist Noodles, told the audience he could play the parts of many songs. But, what he called his “crippling ADHD” meant it was difficult for him to learn every one all the way through.
On stage The Offspring was on fire, bringing together all those quirks and nuances, showing Cardiff what the best of 90’s American skate punk looked like.
One of two older teenagers excitedly waiting for the band to come on stage cheerfully declared that her dad used to play Offspring in the car every day when she was a child.
Whilst there was a heavy representation in the forty something age group, the band definitely had a younger following of fans.
With a resurgence of 90’s pop culture and a die hard original fan base, the sold-out event had proven impossible for people slow off the mark buying tickets to even grab resells.
The set list tick-boxed all the favourites from their long career. Songs from Smash and Americana remaining the endearing classics.
They opened with Come Out And Play. They closed with Self Esteem. And everything in the middle had the audience jumping, moshing and singing along.
The second the band hit the intro for Come Out And Play, the crowd went wild. Dexter Holland had the biggest smile as he looked around the arena. At one point he counted out five mosh pits all on the go.
Come the middle, there was a smattering of Black Sabbath, Ramones and even Hey Jude by The Beatles.
A drone camera captured a drum solo by Brandon Pertzborn, displaying his insanely good skills that made his arms blur such was the speed.
You would be hard pushed to find another such band who not only have a brilliant back catalogue, can pack an arena on a Monday night, but also know exactly how to entertain an audience from start to finish.
The Offspring has to be one of the best gigs this year, they were totally fantastic.
At the half way point, Offspring performed I Wanna Be Sedated by Ramones
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