Photos and a review of The Offspring and Bad Religion in Ottawa
[Back on February 19, Ross MacDonald (photos) and Karen Coughtrey (text) covered this show. – AC]
Californian Punk bands were the order of the night as The Offspring brought their Supercharged tour to Ottawa’s Canadian Tire Centre Thursday (February 19, 2026) night. Joined by openers Bad Religion it brought out punk rock fans of all ages. This was The Offspring’s third visit here in four years, (November 2022, and part of Ottawa Bluesfest summer of 2024 being their other recent visits) and they never fail to bring out a large dedicated crowd.
Classic punk rockers Bad Religion were a successful draw to attract the audience to arrive early and they performed to a nearly full house.
They appeared to be having the time of their life as they opened with ‘Recipe For Hate’ and performed other hits ‘21st Century (Digital Boy),’ Los Angeles Is Burning,’ ‘No Control,’ ‘Infected,’ and ‘Sorrow.’
They stuck to the music, sharing little but pleasantries with the crowd but the audience was engaged, and the band’s joy on stage was obvious and contagious.
They ended their set with ‘American Jesus.’
Intermission at a The Offspring show is an event in itself. The band keeps the audience energy high with a blimp dropping guitar pics and an unseen announcer compliment and critiquing the crowd. There’s a chance to win upgraded seats if you run into the ape man and typical stadium antics such as kiss and celebrity look-alike cams. Of course they made it more punk rock, including a Fuck You cam and a booty cam, on which a few brave fans opted to moon the crowd.
The Ape man appeared on stage to launch more items for the crowd to catch and there was even a brief sighting of the Ottawa Senators mascot, Spartacat.
AC/DC’s ‘Thunderstruck’ got the crowd’s attention as the band was ushered on stage and The Offspring got the show rolling with fan favourite ‘Come Out And Play’ and the rest of the night would go by in a flash as they played a mixture of hits and covers and had the audience laughing in between.
The banter between Dexter and Noodles is legendary and this night was no exception. They would joke about the size of the crowd, record setting according to their statistician, with the numbers and status of the record changing by the second with people leaving and multiple births occurring and although a very funny bit was of course completely false. In the closest either band got to making a political statement a cheezy crowd cheering gimmick morphed into a statement about uniting people and the need to bring people together.
They knew their Ottawa audience well, getting laughs trying to assert that all of Ontario is out of their mind but that Ottawa was top level crazy and there must be a wikipedia page dedicated to the craziness of the people of Ottawa. Of course any one who has heard of Ottawa has likely heard of our reputation for the exact opposite.
They also played to our reputation of being a highly educated population. Claiming to see a spark of mischievousness and intelligence in the crowd’s eyes and a joke about playing the New York Times daily puzzle Wordle got a sizable reaction.
Members of the audience were not the only highly educated people there. As if being the lead in a rock band wasn’t enough, some perhaps lesser known facts about Dexter is that he earned a doctorate in molecular biology in 2017 from USC, is a pilot (and flew the band to Ottawa), and is also a hot sauce guru with the brand Gringo Bandito. He also doesn’t appear to age and, at least from the stands, appeared to be a near dead ringer for Ian Ziering, straight from a 90s episode of 90210.
The set list included ‘Want You Bad,’ ‘Bad Habit,’ ‘Why Don’t You Get A Job’ and ended with ‘The Kids Aren’t Alright.’
Covers mostly part of a bit insinuating that Noodles has an inability to learn a whole song, included a Black Sabbath/Ozzy Osbourne tribute of sorts with snippets of ‘Electric Funeral,’ ‘Paranoid,’ and ‘Crazy Train.’ They would also play Edvard Grieg’s ‘In The Hall Of The Mountain King’ and the Ramones ‘I Wanna Be Sedated.’
The comedic bits, and band introductions all provide a break for the band but a more musically entertaining break (for most of the members) was provided by Drummer Brandon Pertzborn, whose epic drum solo should be an audio clip provided next to any definition of fast & furious.
Every high energy show needs some slower bits to allow everyone to catch their breath and this night that came in the form of Dexter sitting down at a piano to play ‘Gone Away’ (a combo of the 1997 and 2021 version). A song written about the grief and pain of losing someone, a song put out to help others and a strong belief that music can heal. The all too common starry night illusion of cell phone lights was turned on and the mellow moment continued through the song and into a sing along of The Beatles’ ‘Hey Jude.’
No Offspring show is complete without a few Fly guys, and during ‘Pretty Fly For A White Guy,’ not only did they point out several they could spot in the crowd but five others had been specially chosen to join them on stage to do the dance.
Besides the animated videos adding a backdrop to the performance, inflatables were the most notable visual distraction of the night, with the stage set up including at times their signature skeletons (exhaling smoke no less) and later fly guy inflatable waving tube men. At one point it was tricky to see the stage as the floor crowd was tasked with keeping a plethora of beach balls in the air and they were also lucky to be showered with confetti at least three times.
The night ended with an encore which included hits ‘You’re Gonna Go Far Kid’ and ‘Self Esteem’ and they sent the crowd into the night with a sing along of Neil Diamond’s ‘Sweet Caroline’ heard ringing through the arena halls.
The Offspring
Dexter Holland – lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Noodles – lead guitar, backing vocals
Todd Morse – bass, backing vocals
Jonah Nimoy – rhythm guitar, keyboards, backing vocals, percussion
Brandon Pertzborn – drums
Bad Religion
Greg Graffin – lead vocals
Jay Bentley – bass, backing vocals
Brian Baker – guitar, backing vocals
Mike Dimkich – guitar
Jamie Miller – drums
