Southern California punk rockers The Offspring are bringing their acoustic tour to the Rialto Theatre, which might sound kinda strange: What does punk rock without its signature crunchy, screaming guitars and pulsating percussion sound like unplugged?
Pretty rad, says Offspring lead guitarist Kevin John Wasserman โ best known as Noodles.
โIt is taking what weโve done for 35 years and making it new again. Itโs just been so much fun,โ Noodles said in a phone call from his Huntington Beach, California, home last week. โWeโve really had a blast with the acoustic shows.โ
The Offspring will perform in Tucson on Tuesday, June 11 โ their first show here since they played the 2015 KFMA Fall Ball at Kino Stadium.
That 2015 show was more in line with the way The Offspring has performed since Noodles, bass player Greg Kriesel and frontman Bryan โDexterโ Holland first started playing together in 1984 when they were in their early 20s.
The band had modest success until they released their breakthrough third album โSmashโ in early 1994. The record, which became their biggest seller โ it has sold more than 6 million copies to date โ and highest charted album, spun off the hit singles โCome Out and Play,โ โGotta Get Awayโ and โSelf Esteem.โ
It also set the bandโs hard-driving, punk-infused tempo for the next two decades and six records that followed including the last Offspring release, the 2014 EP โSummer Nationals.โ Noodles said the band, whose last studio album was in 2012, has album No. 10 ready to go once they sign a record deal.
In the meantime the band regularly records new songs and releases many of them as singles including the all-out punk onslaught of โIt Wonโt Get Better,โ which tackles the countryโs opioid crisis; and the more alternative rock-leaning โComing For You.โ But donโt expect to hear either of those songs in the mix at Tuesdayโ show.
โWe got a bunch more (new songs) that I canโt wait to get out there, but we want to make sure the fans hear it the way we intended before people start putting crappy cell phone videos of the song up on YouTube,โ he said.
What you can expect to hear on Tuesday is the bandโs hits done quite differently.
โProbably the biggest obstacle we had to overcome was ... having to use the majority of our creativity to try to take something that sounds really good when itโs just distorted heavy guitar, bass and drums ... and make it different when weโre playing on an acoustic kit, acoustic bass and acoustic guitars that are jangly,โ Noodles said.
Most of the songs lend themselves to the acoustic treatment including โSelf Esteem,โ which substitutes ukulele for the opening electric bass line.
โWe donโt change โCome Out and Playโ too much, but a lot of the songs we just had to come out and change,โ he said.
Without having the screaming guitars and pulsating thump thump of the electric bass and percussion, Noodles said he and his bandmates can actually hear whatโs going on beyond the stage.
โWe can hear ourselves over the audience and itโs been rad because the audience is singing along. Itโs like a giant campfire; itโs just a blast,โ he said.
