The Offspring at Terminal 5

After hearing a T.S.O.L. album at a party, and following a riot at a 1984 Social Distortion show, guitarist/vocalist Bryan "Dexter" Holland (who was a drummer at the time) and bassist Greg Kriesel started playing music together in a garage in Cypress, California. School janitor Kevin "Noodles" Wasserman (formerly of Clowns of Death) joined as a second guitarist in 1985, allegedly because he was old enough to purchase alcohol for the other members, who were under the legal drinking age. The band initially was called Manic Subsidal, changing to the Offspring in 1986. The Offspring helped revive punk rock in the 1990s and brought this newly-polished adaption into the pop mainstream, selling over 40 million records worldwide and becoming one of the best-selling punk rock bands of all time. Since 2007, the Offspring has Pete Parada on drums. The Offspring's ninth studio album, Days Go By, was released in 2012.

Celebrating 30 years as a band and the 20th anniversary of the multi-platinum Smash album, the Offspring is presently headlining the Summer Nationals Tour, featuring fellow punk-rockers Bad Religion, Pennywise and the Vandals. At Terminal 5 tonight, the first of a two-night engagement at the large venue, the Offspring performed the entire Smash album, then played later singles and fan favorites, including "All I Want", "Why Don't You Get a Job?", "The Kids Aren't Alright"  and "Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)." (Yeah, they actually played that one.) The Offspring's songs were frequently about personal relationships or sarcastic commentaries on the degradation of politics and society, often chorused with "whoas", "heys", or "yeahs." Although the Offspring has been reported to have been in the studio working on new material, tonight's set was all about the past. It was fast, clean and slick, enjoyable for the masses, and yet very much unlike what angry, raw punk music was originally designed to be.

Visit the Offspring at www.offspring.com.