If you were a fan of punk rock in the ’90s and early 2000s you definitely wouldn’t have wanted to miss the sold-out show in Penticton on Friday night.
Punk rock legends the Offspring and Sum 41 teamed up for a Canadian tour which saw them take the stage at the South Okanagan Events Centre.
The evening of moshing and crowd surfing saw Sum 41 take the stage first, blowing the doors off the place with their opening song ‘The Hell Song’. As always frontman Deryck Whibley had the audience engaged, telling old stories from their time in the Okanagan in-between jamming to their timeless hits.
Apart from the epic lights and pyro production, their musicianship is what really stood out. The Ajax, Ontario natives have been playing together for over 20 years and have arguably gotten tighter over time.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had that much fun,” said Tutumn Barber, a fan at the show.
“I couldn’t get over the fact of how much they sounded like they did on their albums.”
The punk rock outfit stayed true to their roots, playing their fan favorites as songs off their new album Order in Decline. They even sprinkled in a couple of covers such as Queen’s We Will Rock You, which was received well by the crowd.
Their final song Fat Lip is what everyone was waiting for. The nostalgia of the MTV cult classic went right to the energy of the crowd.
The audience was more than warmed up by the time the Offspring took the stage. The Orange Country rockers claimed they had spent the previous night celebrating American thanksgiving by overindulging in turkey and spirits, but you would never have guessed by their performance.
The band played a set of their greatest hits, highlighted by one of the ironically heavier moments of the show. Offspring frontman Dexter Holland sat down to play a haunting version of the band’s 1997 hit on a grand piano, a song about the loss of his then-girlfriend back in the mid-90s.
The Offspring was also sure to keep things light, playing their pop-punk favorites such as Why Don’t You Get a Job and Pretty Fly for a White Guy, wrapping up the show with none other than their biggest song, Self Esteem.
@Niftymittens14
daniel.taylor@kelownacapnews.com
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