Fans packed
the MTelus in Montréal on a Wednesday night for a very unique concert. The Offspring were back in town for their
second show here this year. Dubbed ‘Just
The Punk Stuff’, this was one of only two special shows. Meant to showcase their more punk songs and
deep cuts, their bigger hits would be reserved for another day. The majority of the set list came from their
first two albums. Lots of stuff that
they either have never played live before, or haven’t played in a long time. They also
used these shows to shine a bright light on some younger bands. In Montréal, the prized opening slots went to
General Chaos and Thick Glasses. Usually, I give the opening bands an update of their own on The Old Blog, but it's not really possible this time. We were herded near the back of the hall and couldn't really move around.
Add some very low light during the two sets to the distance we were from the stage and you have a rather difficult photographic situation. Hopefully, I get to make it up to them in the future. Both bands were great and I'd love the chance to get some clean shots of them at some point in the future. General Chaos were the first band to hit the stage.
The members of the band are only 16 years old. I certainly wasn’t doing anything as cool
at that age. Both bands were
on stage playing their songs for a packed house, while also hanging out
backstage with one of the top modern punk bands. Their energy was off the chart. As I image it should be in such an
occasion. The building was already super
charged. General Chaos and Thick 
Glasses rode that wave to what
will be an unforgettable moment for them. “These guys
look like they’re ready to fuck stuff up!” Those were some of the first words
spoken by Dexter Holland after hitting the stage. The building was already packed tighter than
a can of sardines. After getting fired
up by a couple of blistering opening acts, those sardines were ready to
explode. As the band
roared into “Session”, it was only a matter of seconds before the first crowd
surfer reached the stage. The blitz of
bodies never stopped, as fans came wave after wave. Making their way to the stage before diving
back into the crowd and continuing their journey. While all of this was happening, every member
of The Offspring was looking on. Often
with huge smiles of pleasure with a huge does of astonishment. The old
school show featured 11 songs from The Offspring’s first two albums. Before playing “A Thousand Years, Noodles
told the crowd that, “It’s been 35 years since we last played this one live.” The band was on fire and the fans took things
to another level as well. I saw fans
pass out by the soundboard and puking in the street. Nothing was being held back, it was 100 kilometres per hour from start to finish. The Offspring put these special shows on as a gift for their fans. The fans responded by giving back everything
that they had. Big words often get
thrown around when talking about concerts and I’ll use one here. The show was epic. The biggest mainstream hit, “The Kids Aren’t
Alright”, brought the show to an end.
Several those kids probably weren’t feeling alright on Thursday morning.
But the memories they made on Wednesday night won’t ever be forgotten. All of the photographs were taken at f/3.2 while using various different shutter speeds, ISO settings and focal lengths. Here are the rest of the photographs that I took of General Chaos, Thick Glasses and The Offspring while they performed on the MTelus stage.
(Thick Glasses)
(Thick Glasses)
(Thick Glasses)
(Thick Glasses)
If you would like to find out more about The Offspring, General Chaos and Thick Glasses, you can do so by following the respective links to their websites. Much thank goes out to The Offspring's management group, Sandee Bathgate at Bruce Allen Talent, Evenko and Christopher Gonda of V13 Media for getting me a pass to photograph the show. As always, it is much appreciated. It was an awesome show. Don't you dare miss it when The Offspring plays in a town near you.
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