Still more photos and reviews from Ottawa Bluesfest 2024. This time, The Offspring, Silverstein, and Cancer Bats

[Photographer Ross MacDonald and reviewer Karen Coughtrey are covering Ottawa Bluesfest for us. – AC]

The last Thursday of Ottawa Bluesfest 2024 went from being Folk-Rock Night to Punk-Rock on the main stage of the event. Although many were disappointed when Neil Young had to cancel his tour and pull out of the event due to his health, taking his openers with him, the large crowd who came out were clearly stoked to see the replacement lineup of Canadian bands Cancer Bats and Silverstein, and iconic punk band The Offspring.

From the first primal yell of the band it was impossible to ignore the hard core punk band from Toronto (although they claim to have a strong connection to Ottawa and said they are practically an Ottawa band), Cancer Bats. Even the outdoor venue couldn’t dissipate their sound and an immersive experience was felt as they thrashed around the stage opening with a Black Sabbath Cover ‘Into The Void’ and then into their song ‘Bricks and Mortar’.

They were elated about the switch in lineup and their opportunity to play on a big stage in Ottawa opening for their buds Silverstein and they reminisced about their early days as a band playing in some of Ottawa’s smallest venues while acknowledging the small but growing crowd full of familiar faces and Cancer Bats merch.

They played ‘True Zero’ a song about being true to yourself, sticking to your guns, doing what you gotta do’ and surprised the crowd by bringing out Canadian indie folk singer-songwriter Broolyn Doran to join them on ‘Hammering On’.

Of course they acknowledged the circumstances that brought them onto the Bluesfest main page and recognized Neil Young’s legendary status. They paid homage to the man by playing a punkified version of his song ‘Cinnamon Girl’ which they learned for this occasion.

They wrapped things up with a cover of the Beastie Boys ‘Sabotage’ and their hit ‘Hail Destroyer’.

With the sounds of an ominous recorded voice Silverstein took the stage playing ‘Bankrupt’, ‘Infinite’, and then ‘Smashed Into Pieces’ off their very first album before upping the punk factor considerably on ‘Ultra Violet’.

Silverstein also marvelled at the last-minute opportunity to play this show and their days of playing much smaller venues in Ottawa. They spoke about seeing The Offspring in 1998 in Toronto and the jealousy they felt for Jersey, the band from Burlington Ontario, who opened for them on that occasion and now it was finally their turn. They played ‘My Heroine’ for all their old-school fans.

They made a groaner of an Offspring joke about the pit in front of the stage being separated by a barricaded centre aisle (gotta keep ‘em separated) when asking the crowd to up the punk factor and form circle pits on either side before playing a cover of Linkin Park’s ‘One Step Closer’ before going even harder with ‘The Alter/Mary’.

In what has become a fairly regular occurrence, local rock music fan ‘Super-Kyle’ Humphrey was crowd surfing. But what is unique is that Super-Kyle is wheelchair bound, and fearless. Pushed aloft, he surfed all the way to the front of the crowd where security helped him down, ready to go again.

Irregular for an opening act, Silverstein gave the crowd an encore, returning to the stage to play ‘Bad Habits’ and finishing with ‘Smile In Your Sleep’.

Next up were the night’s headliners. And as The Offspring like to do, they built up to their entrance. Ten minutes before showtime “The Offspring” lit up the screen at the back of the stage and the excitement in the crowd went up a notch.

Then ten minutes later everything went dark and slow ominous music resonated over the festival sound system. The back screen went black and the cover art from the Let The Bad Times Roll album flashed up on the screen.

And then boom, the band broke into ‘Come Out And Play’, with everyone in the audience screaming “you gotta keep ‘em separated!” This being the 30th anniversary of the release of The Offspring’s breakthrough album Smash, the band played several other songs from that album throughout the night.

The last time The Offspring played in Ottawa, back in November 2022, Josh Freese was playing drums. Recently Brandon Pertzborn was recruited into the band and he is a perfect addition. Brandon hits his skins very hard and he has fast hands. This is a perfect match to The Offspring’s punk music.

Dexter and Noodles enjoy engaging with each other between songs, there is a lot of banter. At one point Dexter said to Noodles “it’s a bluesfest, maybe you can play some blues.” Noodles played a bit of a blues riff then stated “I’m not a blues player.” So he broke into the guitar solo of Black Sabbath’s ‘Iron Man’.

The Offspring also took a few moment’s to acknowledge their last-minute replacement of the venerable Neil Young. Noodles expressed “we wish Neil and his band a speedy recovery” and went on to say that just for this occasion they learned a bit of a Neil Young song. They wound up playing the chorus of ‘Rockin’ In The Free World’. Afterwards Noodles added “thank you for signing along, I know Neil would have loved it!”

Next up Noodles gave everyone a lesson into how he got his nickname, always noodling on the guitar. He then played Edvard Grieg’s classical masterpiece ‘In The Hall Of The Mountain King’, building up faster and louder with amazing finger dexterity.

And then the west-coast Offspring gave a nod to their east-coast counterparts The Ramones covering ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’, yet another highlight of the evening with an extremely fast and hard-hitting song. Notably Dexter’s voice is still strong and he can hold his notes.

An Offspring concert is fully immersive in both sound and light. There were continuously varying background graphics throughout the concert. Again the banter continued between Dexter “this has been an amazing concert”, and Noodles “it’s already been amazing, but it is going to get amazinger!”

The Offspring again returned to their Smash album with the fan favourite, but not a hit single, ‘Bad Habit’; everyone was singing along with Dexter especially with the expletives in the bridge. Noodles’ fingers were moving as fast as ever.

And just like on the album Smash, the next song was the hit song ‘Gotta Get Away’. Brandon’s drumming had the perfect syncopation, just like on the album; and then finished the song with a glorious drum solo drawing extra-loud cheers.

Closing out the main set were a pair of songs from The Offspring’s Americana album: ‘Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)’ and ‘The Kids Aren’t Alright’. ‘Pretty Fly’ had a pair of giant inflatable blow-up men with waving arms, like advertisements for a car wash. Their heads and arms were waving like crazy, not quite in time with the music, but definitely giving off a party atmosphere. This was all complimented with about 20 giant beach balls bouncing over the crowd.

Thoughts that came to mind during ‘The Kids Aren’t Alright’ – punk rock may be a little older, but you would never know it given the energy and musical abilities of Dexter, Noodles, and the rest of The Offspring.

The night closed out with an encore of ‘You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid’ and their mega-hit ‘Self Esteem’. Once again everyone was singing along loudly and at the climax the song ended with an explosion of confetti.

Although many were disappointed that Neil Young wasn’t able to perform, many others were ecstatic to have The Offspring fill the void. It was a beautiful punk-filled evening that left everyone at the festival overjoyed.

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

Silverstein
Josh Bradford – rhythm guitar
Paul Koehler – drums, percussion
Shane Told – lead vocals
Billy Hamilton – bass guitar, backing vocals
Paul Marc Rousseau – lead guitar, backing vocals

Cancer Bats
Liam Cormier – lead vocals, drums, percussion
Mike Peters – drums, percussion
Jaye R. Schwarzer – bass, backing vocals, guitar
Jackson Landry (touring member) – guitar