Sep 14, 2023

A Parent's Perspective "THE OFFSPRING, SUM 41, SIMPLE PLAN" (SHOW REVIEW)

THE OFFSPRING announced this past summer that they would disembark on their 2023 headline Let The Bad Times Roll Tour, with special guests SIMPLE PLAN, and SUM 41. This potently pop-punk lineup, perfectly blended the heavier punk rock of the early 90's with the early 2000's pop-punk sound in a "nothing short of" nostalgic tour, because let's face it, we all have at least one song we like from those bands.

The tour kicked off this past summer and wrapped up a few weeks ago at the start of September. I was lucky enough to catch the tour on their Burgettstown/ Pittsburgh PA show which was a few days short of the tour wrapping up.

Having seen Simple Plan and Sum 41 last year on their co-headlining "Blame Canada Tour" I knew immediately that adding The Offspring to the mix was going to make for one hell of a show!

SEPTEMBER 1ST, 2023 PITTSBURGH, PA: The "Let The Bad Times Roll Tour" featuring The Offspring, Sum 41 and Simple Plan rolled into The Pavilion at Starlake in Burgettstown, PA just outside of Pittsburgh PA. Starlake is one of my favorite adolescent venues where I've seen all three of the bands playing at the Vans Warped Tour back in the day. Every inch of the parking lot, as well as about 2 miles of traffic in either direction, were brimmed with punk rock concertgoers.

Sum 41 took the stage first as Simple Plan and Sum have been trading off on opening slots the entire tour. The Canadian punk rockers blasted through a nearly dozen-song set of nostalgic hits, opening with track Motivation from their breakthrough record "A Killer No Filler", wasting no time jumping into the next two tracks The Hell Song and Over My Head both off of the "Does This Look Infected?" album.

Slowing things down a bit Sum 41 We're All To Blame from the "Chuck" record with Walking Disaster to follow. After a brief banter with the crowd the Canadian quartet played a very punk rock rendition of Queen's We Will Rock You before diving back into the "A Killer No Filler" catalog and playing In Too Deep followed by their breakthrough single Fat Lip just before closing the set out with "Still Waiting" all the while promising fans that they would be back for their farewell tour after their new album that they're dropping sometime next year hits.

After a brief intermission of nonstop pop punk and punk rock bangers blasting through the PA system, Simple Plan kicked off their set with I'd Do Anything from their breakthrough record "No Pads, No Helmet, Just Balls".

Wasting no time they followed up with track Shut Up from 2004's "Still Not Getting Any" followed by track Jump from the same record. The fan favorites contributed with track Addicted with Welcome To My Life to follow. A fairly new track was up entitled Iconic from the band's 2022 record "Harder Than It Looks".

After some crowd banter Simple Plan dove into a medley of early 2000's pop-punk hits including All Star by Smashmouth, Sk8er Boi by Avril Lavigne and Mr. Brightside by The Killers before diving into What's New Scooby Doo with one of the crew dressed as Scooby running on stage shooting T-shirts into the crowd.

Simple Plan's drummer Chuck emerged from behind the set in the middle of I'm Just A Kid and crowdsurfed the entire ending of the song while lead singer Pierre behind the drum set. They finished their set with their track Perfect with Pierre on an acoustic guitar.

After a brief intermission the lights dimmed and cameras that projected on to the massive drive-in style screens were onto fans singing along to songs in the crowd blasting over the PA system. The cameras kept panning to someone dressed as a gorilla in the crowd dancing to songs before the gorilla took to the stage. The lights went out before a countdown clock on the screen counted down from 10 as The Offspring entered the stage kicking off their set with Come Out and Play.

Wasting no time, they dove into All I Want before I Want You Bad. Their latest single Let The Bad Times Roll was next which is also the title of the tour. The band jumped right into track 3 Staring Into The Sun from 1998's Americana record before diving into track Original Prankster from 2000's Conspiracy Of One record which originally featured Redman on additional vocals.

Hammerhead and Bad Habit were to follow from "Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace" and "Smash" albums respectively before the band took to some crowd banter joking that they broke the attendance record of over a million patrons before breaking into a medley of classic rock hits including Iron Man, The Trooper, Sweet Child of Mine and more before finishing with Ramones Blitzkreig Bop.

1994's Gotta Get Away was next with an acoustic piano rendition of Gone Away followed by Offspring classic hit Get A Job. I was wondering when Head Around You was going to play which was next followed by Pretty Fly For A White Guy before the band closed out with The Kids Aren't Alright.

Of course fans were wondering what happened to classic hits You're Gonna Gonna Go Far Kid and Self Esteem which ended the night with the encore to the show.

Having not seen The Offspring since the 2005 Vans Warped Tour, the band still hasn't skipped a beat and is a highly recommended must see for live bands as well as Simple Plan and Sum 41 live!

You can check out a full gallery of photos from the show plus links to the band's pages and more below!