NJ Music Festivals

The Offspring headlined a stacked night of pop punk at PNC Bank Arts Center on Saturday night, as the ‘SUPERCHARGED World Tour’ treks through the northeast.

The band was joined by pop punk staples in Jimmy Eat World and New Found Glory for a high-energy and nearly sold-out concert in Holmdel.

New Found Glory took the stage by storm to kick off the night, with a short, 30-minute set full of hits. The NFG fans in the crowd were super into the set, especially when lead singer Jordan Pundik jumped into the audience during ‘song title.’

The band also featured Four Year Strong’s Dan O’Connor on lead guitar and Motion City Soundtrack’s Zach Comtois on rhythm guitar and keyboards.

The Floridian band played all the hits, including ‘Understatement’ and ‘All Downhill From Here,’ their newest single, ‘100%,’ and closed with ‘My Friends Over You.’ The band may have brought the most energy in the 7 o’clock hour out of anyone all season at PNC.

Pundik, an Englewood, NJ native, also ran into the crowd during ‘Hit or Miss.’

Setlist:

1. Understatement
2. All Downhill From Here
3. Hit or Miss
4. 100%
5. Failure’s Not Flattering
6. Dressed to Kill
7. Intro
8. My Friends Over You

Another alt/pop group, Jimmy Eat World, took the stage next. The band, led by Jim Adkins, played a super flawless and tight 12-song set.

Instead of introducing each song by its title, Adkins would introduce each by its age. Despite trying to convince everyone that the band is super old, they sounded just like they did 20 years ago.

The band powered through songs the whole night, taking almost no breaks in between. The Mesa, Arizona natives squeezed in their three biggest hits right at the end: ‘A Praise Chorus,’ ‘Sweetness,’ and ‘The Middle.’

“We played the deadest show yesterday, so this is pretty cool,” Adkins said after ‘Bleed American.’

Setlist:

1. Pain
2. Just Tonight…
3. Let It Happen
4. Work
5. Lucky Denver Mint
6. Bleed American
7. Call It in the Air
8. Big Casino
9. Something Loud
10. A Praise Chorus
11. Sweetness
12. The Middle

Before The Offspring hit the stage, their show had already started. A large LED screen displayed video games, singalongs, and trivia in the minutes leading up to their set. A Kiss Cam too, but no Coldplay incidents in NJ.

Despite being a punk rock band who had the bare minimum in the production department over 30 years ago, the band has transitioned to “an evening with” type show, which all sorts of lighting, pyro, confetti, inflatables, and even a blimp.

The Offspring opened with 1994 hit ‘Come Out and Play,’ followed by a little bit from every Offspring era. The band played just two songs from their newest record, ‘SUPERCHARGED,’ and four songs from both ‘Smash’ and ‘Americana.’ They also played snippets of five separate covers, including a track from The Ramones and a three-song Ozzy Osbourne tribute.

Despite turning 60 years old at the end of this year, lead singer Dexter Holland still looked like a Cali skateboard kid, accompanied by Noodles, 62.

Holland, a certified pilot and pHD holder in molecular biology, serenaded the crowd on piano during ‘Gone Away,’ before closing the first set with ‘The Kids Aren’t Alright.’ The band came out for an encore to close the show with ‘You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid’ and ‘Self Esteem.’

Setlist:

1. Come Out and Play
2. All I Want
3. Want You Bad
4. Looking Out For #1
5. (Can’t Get My) Head Around You
6. Staring at the Sun
7. Original Prankster
8. Hammerhead
9. Hit That
10. Make It All Right
11. Want You Bad
12. Bad Habit
13. Paranoid (Black Sabbath cover; partial)
14. Crazy Train (Ozzy Osbourne cover)
15. In the Hall of the Mountain King (Edvard Grieg cover; partial)
16. I Wanna Be Sedated (The Ramones cover)
17. Gotta Get Away
18. Drum Solo
19. Fix You
20. Gone Away
21. Why Don’t You Get a Job?
22. Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)
23. The Kids Aren’t Alright
24. You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid (encore)
25. Self Esteem (encore)

The band will be on Long Island tonight at Jones Beach Theater. The tour runs through the end of November in Europe.