311/ Offspring – MN State Fair – St. Paul MN – August 31st 2018

Friday August 31st, the Minnesota State Fair and 93X brought the Offspring and 311 to the Grandstand.

The Offspring formed in 1984, hails from Garden Grove, California. The band has sold over 40 million records worldwide, in which they are considered one of the best selling punk rock bands of all time. Their third studio album, Smash (1994), with hits singles, “Come Out and Play”, “Self Esteem”, and “Gotta Get Away”, the album set a record for most units sold by an independent label band by selling 16 million records. It has now been certified six times platinum in the United States. With the bands release of Americana (1998) are the bands biggest song hits, which are, “Pretty Fly (for a white guy)”, “Why Don’t You Get a Job?”, and “The Kids Aren’t Alright”, which brought The Offspring into mainstream popularity. I’ve seen The Offspring several times and every time they are always great to see live. They put on a great show and you would not be disappointed.

311 are from Omaha, Nebraska and formed in 1988. The band name originates from the police code for indecent exposure in Omaha, after the original guitarist for the band was arrested for streaking. The bands first record, Music (1993), contained the single “Do You Right”, which received airplay on modern rock stations and reached number 27 on Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks chart. They started receiving mainstream success with their release of their self-titled album, also known as the blue album. “Down” hit number 1 on the Modern Rock chart, while “All Mixed Up”, hit number 4. 311’s album, Transistor, debuted at number 4 on the Billboard 200 and the album also had gone platinum. 311 is super entertaining live, this was my first time so I was excited to see them and didn’t know what to expect. They have really great stage presence and you can definitely tell that they have been doing this for many years and have it perfected. Doug “SA” Martinez dances all over the stage as he sings and makes the experience of watching them fun. I would highly recommend seeing them live; I would love to see them again.

Review and photos by Kaila Turck