“It’s time to get offended.” You can hear me say these words in the opening moments of the recording of Does It Offend You, Yeah?’s Sept. 18th 2008 performance at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, CA.
It’s not so much that the crowd was offended by the music. Rather their reaction was quite the opposite. Moshpits consumed the entire floor, stairways and balcony seats were packed in with eager teen and twenty-something-year-old concertgoers. When the first samples of “Weird Science” started to play “Get away, get away, get away, get away” and the bass drum kicks, synth stabs, and enthusiastic shouts of “oi, oi, oi, oi” coming right on beat from the crowd mixed together into the buildup and released a poignant and punchy beatbed for James Rushent’s verbal welcoming and promptly following aural assault.
“Doomed Now” carried the crowd’s enthusiasm forward with plenty of crowd surfing and on “Battle Royale” the boys broke out the cowbell and got an even dirtier bassline working each and every body up and down in synch. Our friends lost and found a wallet, the band polled the audience in downloading/purchasing their album and I shouted about the 7”. “Being Bad Feels Pretty Good” was first introduced as “Being Good Feels Pretty Bad” and proved to be a charming exhibition of the band’s formulaic pop methodology.
DIOYY? quickly offset the previous pop charm of the previous song with their three minute long psychobilly flavored “Attack of the 60ft Lesbian Octopus.” At this time we learned about the afterparty at Vessel from several different promoters and promptly finished our drinks.
Craigslist casual couples were the demographic that “Lets Make Out” was dedicated to on this evening and let Josh get pretty experimental with his grungy, Kurt Cobain-esque snarls. I’d imagine the 15 year old girls on the floor were going insane by this point. I know my 23 year old fiancé certainly was J
“These damn dinner tables!” is what Chloe Duveaux was upset about, before he started talking about the afterparty, at Vessel where they would be spinning ABBA and Guns & Roses records. “Dawn of the Dead” was also quoted as their favorite song just before launching into its opening verse and certainly earned “sing-a-long status” from our party members in attendance.
One of our favorite songs, “With a Heavy Heart (I Regret to Inform You)” came next and if I remember correctly, when we saw them on their way back from Coachella in late April 2008, this was the same song that they had the entire audience of Slim’s up on the stage jumping off and crowd surfing next to the big sign that said “No Moshing / Crowd Surfing.” It was definitely just as hype this time around, and was up there with many successful metal bands of the 90’s in creativity and emotion.
The next little jam I swear to god was a cover of “Invaders Must Die” by The Prodigy. You be the judge, but since James co-produced “Invaders Must Die” and “Omen” off of The Prodigy’s 2009 release Invaders Must Die there is at least a distinct possibility that this is the case. Nevertheless it is an amazing find that I’m not sure you can get anywhere else. Tré unique.
“We Are Rockstars,” which in my opinion is the only song in their current arsenal that could follow a cover of The Prodigy was introduced as the last song of the evening. The crowd went n-u-t-s! The blazing synthesizers of the verses parted, allowing for a soothing 8-bit chorus to replenish the crowd’s energy, while theremins and chunky basslines pounded the crowd into one cohesive-yet-chaotic mass. This was an amazing finish and could only be topped by an encore performance of something completely different.
There was a short pause before a birthday announcement and after a quick round of “Happy Birthday,” the band went right into their reimagining of “Whip It” by soon to be re-emerging devolutionary rockers Devo.
Fun fact: I met Devo this March at SXSW in Austin, Texas when they held a Press Conference confirming their reunion and plan to release a new album in the fall of 09. I was the last person to ask a question before the Press Conference ended, but I made sure to make it count with “Have you heard Does It Offend You, Yeah?’s cover of “Whip It,” and if you have, would you consider touring with them?” The original four members had not heard the version, but the newest member, super-musician Josh Freese definitely had, and can be quoted as saying that it was a “reimagining of the song” and that “there’s no reason why not” in reference to touring with DIOYY?. Truth is, I think it would be the perfect show to see this summer. Let’s see if we can make some magic happen.
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