The Offspring • Jimmy Eat World • New Found Glory • September 6, 2025 • Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre
Reviewed and Photographed by Austin Dayton
At 28 years old, I wasn’t around for the first big wave of The Offspring’s rise. By the time “Come Out and Play” and “Self Esteem” were dominating the charts and making rounds on MTV, I was still in elementary school collecting snails. But that didn’t matter on September 6, 2025, when I finally got to see Offspring light up the Utah First Credit Union Amphitheater. For me, this wasn’t about reliving high school memories, though that seemed to be the case with everyone surrounding me; it was about connecting with a band I’d only ever experienced through an occasional playlist and road trip sing-alongs. And it turns out, music doesn’t necessarily need nostalgia to hit just as hard.
From the moment I walked into the amphitheater, the crowd felt like a mix of timelines. Some fans clearly had been following The Offspring since the mid-’90s — you could spot them in faded tour shirts. But there were just as many people close to my age, and even younger, as all night I was spotting full families. It didn’t feel like I was crashing someone else’s party; it felt like the music had stretched across generations and landed right here, on this late-summer night in West Valley.
New Found Glory
With the sun still in the sky, New Found Glory opened with the kind of energy that managed to make you forget how early in the night it is. “My Friends Over You” had the pit moving almost immediately, and Jordan Pundik’s voice carried that same hyper, youthful punch you expect from them. To the crowd’s delight, that energy was quickly showcased even more as Pundik made his way into the pit, singing and jumping along with the beat.
Jimmy Eat World
Then came Jimmy Eat World, a band I actually knew relatively well. “The Middle” was already a staple by the time I was in high school, and hearing it live was a surreal experience. Thousands of voices sang every word back at Jim Adkins, myself included. It wasn’t quite nostalgia, more like finally being part of something that had always been just out of reach. Their set was polished, heartfelt, and for a lot of people around my age, probably the most personal sing-along of the night.
As Jimmy Eat World finished their set, an impressive intermission show began. For the next 25 minutes, a man in a gorilla suit ran around the venue, giving out t-shirts, upgrading people’s seats, and starting mini dance parties. This passed the time between artists in a really fun and engaging way. It left me thinking that I would love to see this type of thing at more shows!
The Offspring
When The Offspring finally hit the stage, any question about whether their music would still resonate disappeared. They opened with “Come Out and Play”, and that riff just ripped through the air like it had been waiting decades for me to finally hear it live. And the band didn’t slow down, “All I Want,” “Want You Bad,” “Looking Out for #1” one after another, each song was a punch to the chest in the best way. Even tracks I didn’t quite know felt instantly familiar in that setting. With the audience fully alive, their energy carried me as if I knew each word.
Some of the more special and unexpected moments came when the band threw in a medley of covers, to everyone’s delight, a mix of Black Sabbath, the Ramones, and even a tribute cover of Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” was played. It was messy, playful, and beautiful, and overall, a reminder of the community and connectedness of the rock community.
The peak of the night for me came during “The Kids Aren’t All Right.” The lyrics hit different when hearing them live at my age. The song isn’t just about some abstract lost generation; it’s about choices, pressure, and uncertainty, things that feel very real when you’re navigating adulthood now in our current chaotic world.
And then came the encore. “You’re Gonna go Far Kid” and “Self Esteem,” both of which I had heard before in bars and on the radio, but nothing compared to thousands of voices screaming it together. The final “Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!” rattled through the amphitheater like a release valve. For a few minutes, it didn’t matter that I wasn’t old enough to see this band at their peak — I was right there, watching everyone around me relive what Offspring meant to them, experiencing the kind of moment only an Offspring fan could have.
Overall, the production was spot-on, with clean sound, sharp lights, and just enough banter to make it personal. Noodles cracked jokes between songs, Dexter leaned into the crowd, and the band felt like they were having just as much fun as we were.
By the time the last note faded, my voice was gone and my ears were ringing (my earplugs had met their match). Driving away, I realized something: The Offspring didn’t just deliver a night of nostalgia for older fans. For people like me, who found them later or were there as new fans, they proved these songs still matter — maybe even more now.
At 28, this wasn’t about revisiting high school memories. It was about claiming the music for myself, in the present tense, and understanding firsthand why The Offspring are still packing amphitheaters in 2025.
And if you walked out sore, sweaty, and grinning, you knew the answer: punk rock doesn’t fade away into obscurity, it just finds some new fans to scream it with.