De Offspring's first decade of activity, when it was considered a fairly niche band known to punk-rock fans and skaters from California, did not bring it worldwide success. She only entered mainstream consciousness in 1994, nine years after it was formed, when her third album Smash became a treasure trove of rock hits that would define their era.
But even if its early years weren't considered particularly successful, it brought vocalist Dexter Holland, guitarist Kevin "Noodles" Wasserman and their friends some formative experiences that are hard to forget. The kind that would become a ficantaria that would be pulled out in an interview with an Israeli media outlet three decades later, on the occasion of the band's first visit to Israel.
The Offspring - "Self Esteem"
"Yes, it happened in Hollywood in 1989," recalls Wasserman, one of the two founding members of the band, which will perform in Tel Aviv on Monday. "We performed at a charity concert with a few other punk-rock bands, I think we were the third show. Suddenly, there was a commotion in the hall so I went to check on and saw one of the guys from the other bands going to blows with Skinhead. I went to help him, only to pull him out, and suddenly I felt pain in my arm. I thought one of the skinheads had hit me with a club or something. After the fight ended, I took off my leather jacket and said, 'Oh, it wasn't Ella, it was a knife.'"
Sounds like a terrible story you can tell your grandchildren. How did it end?
"The guys who were rioting then went to a street corner and started attacking some people who were sitting in a car. But they were arrested, tried and punished for everything that happened there. It was wild."
Such experiences almost caused the man who would become one of the most important guitarists in American rock only five years later to think about quitting the band and music in general. In a parallel world, he does, goes to school, finds a job and curses himself for the rest of his life.
But in the familiar timeline, after two albums that didn't make too much noise (at least in terms of international recognition), came the third album that would make all the difference. There are cases, it turns out, where parental advice is the one that should not be taken. "We were touring small places in Europe and when I got home my mom said to me, 'Well, I think this is as far as you'll go with the band. Don't you think you want to go to school at this point?'"
Legend has it that you were ready to leave the band.
"Not really. I was just working as a janitor in a school, my career wasn't going anywhere and I was wondering what I was going to do with my life. I didn't think the band would get off the ground, so I considered joining the Coast Guard or going to learn something. I remember talking to Dexter and teasing him. I said, 'Dude, what am I going to do with my life?' Then came Smash."
"The Israeli fans were great." Offspring, Photo: Daveed Benito
Ten years is a long time to wait for a breakthrough. Do you remember a precise moment when you realized that you were no longer a warm-up band but the main act?
"Success caught us off guard. For me, probably the biggest moment was after two shows we had in Orange County, California. I remember getting out of there, going to the car with my wife after the show was over, shaking hands with a lot of people and looking at the hall, which was starting to empty of people. I thought, 'What the hell just happened?'"
To put Smash in a cultural context and understand the importance that Offspring had as a groundbreaking band, you have to go back to the mid-'90s, when they pushed punk rock to places it had not yet visited – namely the mainstream. It was songs like "Come Out And Play", "Gotta Get Away" and of course "Self Esteem" that would become huge hits, and which every Israeli who grew up and formed in the Ninties knows (and probably loves).
As mentioned, tomorrow will be their first appearance in Israel, and even Noodles, who have Jewish roots on his father's side (although he admits that he is not exactly a big fan of religion and has not researched the subject in depth) does not really understand why. "That's a good question. We've been wanting to come to Israel for years, and there's a reason for that," he says.
"It's a bit of a random story, but we performed in South Korea about 18 years ago and ran into a group of Israeli fans. They were really great and we remembered them years later. It turned out that my only experience with Israeli fans of the band was, of all places, in South Korea."
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