The Offspring/Neon Trees – Terminal 5 – September 19, 2012

Last night at Terminal 5, Neon Trees took the stage with minimal fanfare, which certainly had more to do with who they were supporting rather than anything against them. The Utah group’s singles (particularly the insanely catchy and heard-everywhere “Animal”) were the best received by the baggy-jeans-and-baseball-cap-clad crowd—one that perhaps hasn’t always understood the glam-y, arty band in the past, if frontman Tyler Glenn’s comments were any indication.

But the headliners, Southern California’s the Offspring, were greeted by an audience that I had never seen so quickly vacate the Terminal 5 roof deck at the stroke of the 10 o’clock set time. The pop-punk forefathers, who broke into the mainstream in 1994 with the release of Smash on Epitaph Records, took the stage to a cheering crowd undoubtedly wanting to hear that band’s older material. And the quartet did not disappoint, delivering a spectacular set. From “Come Out and Play,” “Bad Habit” and “Gotta Get Away,” all off Smash, to “All I Want” and “Gone Away” from Ixnay on the Hombre, and “Staring at the Sun,” “Why Don’t You Get a Job” and “Pretty Fly (For a White Guy),” off Americana, the Offspring played hit after hit.

The few newer songs the Offspring played—including “You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid,” off Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace, and “Days Go By” and “OC Guns,” off their current release, Days Go By—fared equally as well. This was no surprise, though, because the old and new stuff showcased the band’s knack for writing catchy pop-punk hits with both depth and kitsch, and their impeccably executed 20-song set proved that although the Offspring may be from yesteryear, they still have the ultimate staying power and continued relevance in this year’s punk scene. —Kirsten Housel

Photo courtesy of Joe Papeo | www.irocktheshot.com