Tulsa, OK (Sep 25, 1997)
 

When The Offspring last came through my home town of Tulsa, Oklahoma 
on September 25, 1997 for the Ix-Nay tour they were with The Voo 
Doo Glow Skulls, Joy Killer,  and Me First and The Gimme Gimme's.  
The show pretty much rocked for that matter.  The Glow Skulls are a 
punk packed ska band with lots of energy which really got everyone pumped 
for The Offspring.  They even did a few songs in Spanish for us.  
	
When the opening bands had left the stage it seemed like we waited forever 
for "you know who" to take the stage.  There was about fifteen minutes 
of continuous rave music playing while the floor of The Cains Ballroom 
began to tighten up.  After a while the music just stopped and everything 
was silent.  Then all of the sudden an enormous basing stomp sound erupted 
from the speaker tower.  I mean this was so powerful it shook the bones 
in my body.  Everyone cheered, but still we waited.  These earth shaking 
convulsions continued in the meantime.  After about ten or so had occurred 
at a steady pace they stopped...  Then three more came real close together.  
The whole room went ballistic.  That's when the "Time to Relax" track began 
to play.  Only it was a little different.  At the end it said something like 
"you don't want to relax, you want to fucking tear the place up", etc.  
	
Finally after everyone on the floor was condensing towards the stage they 
came out and opened up with The Meaning Of Life.  Now I can't remember 
the set list exactly the way it went except for The Meaning Of Life, kicking 
it off.  I think it proceeded as Bad Habit, Don't Pick It Up, Self Esteem, 
I Choose, Gotta Get Away, Something to Believe In, Mota, intermission, 
All I want, Way Down the Line, Come Out And Play, What Happened to You, 
Amazed, Smash, Gone Away, and Not the One.  
	
It was really awesome because during the last song Dexter let all these 
kids just come up on stage with him to finish it up.  They were also 
very funny.  At one point a pair of panties got thrown up on stage and 
Dexter caught them.  He turned to Noodles and Asked if they were his.  
Noodles replied "yes" sarcastically.  The only thing I didn't like about 
it was that they didn't play any old stuff like mainly Jennifer Lost 
the War.  Other than that the rest of it just kicked ass!  I highly 
recommend going if they appear in you own town.





Salt Lake City, UT (Nov 27, 1998)


This was my second time to see my favorite band about a year later.  
Many of you may wander why I came all the way from Oklahoma to Utah
just to see "The Offspring".  Are you crazy?  That band is worth 
traveling a hell of a lot farther to go see.  In any case I was going 
to be in Salt Lake City that week visiting my best friend for the 
Thanksgiving holiday.  When I was looking at the tour dates and saw 
that they were playing on the Friday night of my stay I jumped out of
my chair, literally.  

"Knowitall" and "Unwritten Law" got the distinct privilage of opening 
the show, which they did a very good job of if I may add.  The concert 
was held in an old one screen porn theatre called "The Tower Theatre".
It was suprisingly not all that big inside.  It had a balcony with 
about fifty seats and ther were aproximately  

I do not remember the set list exactly this time, but I do remember
several of the songs performed.  The third song was "Kick Him When He's
Down".  That is a really powerfull live song for them and Dexter concluded
it with the comment which follows; "That ones my favorite".  Ok so it's 
not poetic, but it's short and to the point.

They also played "Cool To Hate".  Now when I saw them in my home town of 
Tulsa, OK they introduced this song a little differently than the way 
they did it in Utah.  For instance in both towns Dexter said he really
hates country music and both crowds cheered for him.  In Utah however he
followed up that comment with another item he hates.  This second thing 
happened to be Garth Brooks.  FYI: Good ol' Garth was born and raised in
Oklahoma.  Dexter then instructed the crowd to shout "Garth Brooks is a
mother fucker" on his count of three.  It was great.  I'll never forget
being in a room with 600 other people all yelling Garth Brooks is a mother
fucker.           
   
on this tour the band had with them a back up dancer on stage.  He was just
some guy who jumped around and acted goofy.  He had a little constructed 
drum set made out of old beat up bloody doll heads.  One of them had a face 
painted like that of Gene Simmons from "Kiss".  The guy had a mic and would 
jump around, beat on the heads with his drum sticks, and fill in for some 
back up vocals during "Pretty Fly".  He was supposed to be a sort of 
representation of the wannabe from the video, but dressed down just a tad.  

One thing that disappointed me was that they didn't play enough new stuff.
When Dexter began taking requests many people shouted for songs like 
"D.U.I." and "Smash It Up".  But instead they played something like 
"Gotta Get Away".  They played a lot of songs off of Smash.  These 
included "Self Esteem" (duh), "Nitro", "Bad Habit", "What Happened To You",
and Keep'em Seperated".  From Ix-Nay On The Hombre"they played 
"Mota", "All I Want", "Gone Away", and "I Choose".  All they really
played from Americana was "Pretty Fly", "The Kids Aren't Alright",
"Have You Ever", and "Walla WAlla".

Basically the show kicked ass just as I expected it to and I can't wait 
for the Americana tour to pass through Tulsa so I can clock in my
third concert with them.  
  
   

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