The Offspring – Hammersmith Apollo – 22/6/16

The Offspring – Hammersmith Apollo – 22/6/16
It’s been the Eventim Apollo, Labatts Apollo, HMV Apollo, even the Gaumont Palace, but its REAL name is ‘Hammersmith Odeon’. The venue of choice for heavy metal bands long before Motörhead name-checked it on the ‘No Sleep ‘Til Hammersmith’ album (recorded anywhere BUT Hammersmith). It was pretty much the only venue I ever saw bands as I was growing up, and the number of times I missed the last bus home is best not mentioned in front of my parents. So, it’s always a pleasure to negotiate Hammersmith Broadway, walk around the church and under the overpass, offer a ticket to security for tearing/punching/scanning and join the crush around the merch desk. The room itself has been refurbished a number of times – the old wooden (not very) padded seats are long gone, and now they can even remove them altogether, rather than have people dance like idiots in neat rows (but where do you put 2,500 seats? You’d need a fairly large cupboard under the stairs). The art deco shapes on the walls and ceilings have survived, lending an austere grandeur to whatever debauch takes place.
And so it was that 5,000 ageing punk fans descended on Hammersmith one Wednesday evening. The support band, Temperance Peck from Manchester were pretty good indie-punk and said not nice things about Nigel Farage (it was the night before the referendum). The middle band was Bad Religion - my reason for coming and a story for another shirt. By the time The Offspring hit the stage I was at the back of the room, and quite happy with both sound and view.
I must have got into The Offspring when we were living in Sydney. ‘Self-Esteem’ was all over the radio, and that album - ‘Smash’ is their best by far. South California punk rock with a sense of humour and a great ear for a hook. It’s cartoon punk, which makes me think of Ren & Stimpy because of the Hispanic references that pepper their work. The hit singles in the 90s mean they’ve been able to survive on the summer circuit ever since. I’d seen the band at Reading Festival over 10 years ago, since when I thought they’d released a couple of albums no-one bought and sunk without trace.
Apparently not. I’d also forgotten how may great songs they’ve done featuring that great folk music tradition – gibberish, or as some would say – non-lexical vocables. ‘La la lala la la’, ‘Walla walla’ and other expressions cropped up in half their songs, making every one a perfect sing-along no matter how confused the audience member might be. There’s also the song which rips off the chorus of ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’ but uses lyrics that refract the message of the Beatles song through 40 years and half a world away. There’s more to the Offspring than ‘Pretty Fly for a White Guy’ (but not too much more).
The band made gave a nod to the referendum with a run through of ‘Should I Stay or should I go’ (cute) but otherwise were just having fun and could have been anywhere or when. The band played most of the ‘Smash ‘ album, so I was a very happy bunny, and they ended with ‘Self Esteem’ – causing impromptu moshing at the back of the stalls which surprised the moshers as much as the rest of us.
Another great night at the Hammersmith Odeon. As if there could ever be a bad one.