Shows from older punks are a risky prospect. Will it be a nostalgia-fest, re-living the days when they could lace their boots without lower back pain, or will it be a chance to light the flame of rebellion once again? Our experience at the leafy, historic Crystal Palace Park is neither. Instead, we get the best that The Offspring and Dropkick Murphys have been in years; tight, ferocious, devoid of the whimsy that both bands caved to throughout the last decade, and an evolution of their beloved sound, simultaneously paying tribute to where they came from while exciting us for the future. In short, the very definition of a great punk rock show. Throw in some spectacular supports and the result is the absolute antithesis of a genteel afternoon in South London.
Destroy Boys
The rowdy Riot Grrrls are ready to knock down barriers with dirty riffs, and theyâre unapologetic about their originality. âI Threw Glass At My Friendâs Eyes And Now Iâm On Probationâ thunders vocalist Alexis Roditis, who unleashes full-on metal roars above Violet Mayugbaâs Nirvana-esque guitar. Weâre falling in love second-by-second with the post punk wails that underline âFencesâ, and Destroy Boys prove that theyâve got the skills to match their power stance.
PUP
PUP channel their old school heritage as the spiritual and melodic descendants of Weezer and Pennywise. âMorbid Stuffâ captures the crowd with a sun-drenched striking breakdown full of longing before the shouted open-road warmth of âKidsâ. âWeâre just gonna do as much rockinâ as weâre capable ofâ, Stefan Babcock cautiously promises. But the way âDark Daysâ portrays bliss as a passage of time through upbeat harmonies, piercing guitar brightness and thoughtful lyrics, makes this so much more than a ârockinâ set from the Canadians.Â
Pennywise
Jim Lindberg and the Pennywise guys are suffering from what they call a âheat hangoverâ following their show in Paris the day before⌠but if overheating them is what makes them play a set thatâs harder and faster than theyâve played in a long time, weâre definitely not going to suggest they chill under the air conditioning anytime soon. A huge outdoor space like this is what their bass boom needs to kick up a circle pit for âMy Own Countryâ. âStraight Aheadâ, their âFloorbangerâ throws out heavier riffs than some will remember, and the inflammatory energy of âFuck Authorityâ never gets old. Covering NOFXâs âBobâ and Ben E Kingâs âStand By Meâ offer genius moments for the fans, and there will never be a time we wonât sing our dust-filled lungs out to âBro Hymnâ.
Dropkick Murphys
If you think you know Dropkick Murphys, you really donât when it comes to their 2026 incarnation. Ken Casey, back on frontman duties since 2022, is raging at the state of politics in America, and has channelled his fury into making the Murphys the tightest theyâve ever been. âOur purpose as a band is to travel around and apologise for Americaâs behaviour⌠learn from our mistakes, donât do to yourselves what we did to ourselves!â he yells before âFirst Class Loserâ, their novelty song transformed into a diatribe against their Commander-in-Chief.
Theyâve become the courageous Johnny Appleseeds of middle-aged resistance, leading us jigging through âFor The Peopleâ and sending a surfer in a wheelchair flying across the pit to âJohnny I Hardly Knew Yaâ. Suddenly their fixation on covering Woody Guthrie makes sense when we hear the joyful solidarity of âBoundary Lineâ dragged into this century, and their cover of The Pogues’ âBody Of An Americanâ forms a perfect tribute to Shane McGowan. Even newcomers to Dropkick Murphys are converted by âRose Tattooâ, and by the time they close with the obligatory âIâm Shipping Up To Bostonâ, weâve all found our new favourite band.Â
The Offspring
The whimsy is gone. The dad jokes are banished. The lightweight hits are there for fan service and breaks only. The Offspring have fully reversed course and become a proper punk band again, and we are ecstatic at their return to the form which catapulted them to fame all those decades ago. Ok, hearing guitarist Noodles shout, âFuck yeah, Crystal Palace Park,â without a trace of irony is hilarious, but we can forgive him when it sits between a sharp âAll I Wantâ and the choral communion organ intro to âWant You Badâ. We donât need gimmicks when the fun comes from within us; the tick-tock beat of âStaring At The Sunâ is an electric twitch to our muscles. Without varnish and with cute harmonies replaced with gang vocals, âMake It Alrightâ feels so much more real, and Dexter Hollandâs gentleness on the chorus is a balm to our sunburnt brains.
We didnât expect a full Taylor Swift cover or the resulting wall of death for âLove Storyâ, but it absolutely works as a reinvention. The Offspring have discovered that less is more – if you can call a giant inflatable skeleton spewing smoke to âHammerheadâ less, and âThe Kids Are Alrightâ is a perfect evolution of their punk roots. The community that the Offspring have built around themselves is the extra that they needed, and as we grin at Holland wearing an England shirt for a bright, sharp âYouâre Gonna Go Far, Kidâ, weâre struck by just how brilliant theyâve always been. Away from the gloss of the studio and their MTV viral era, theyâre a tremendously slick band who have rediscovered how to give us exactly what we want. A note of pity in Hollandâs delivery of âSelf Esteemâ repaints the whole song, giving us the spark we need to shuffle back into the real world. Our faith in punk is fully restored after seeing our favourites give the best show weâve seen from them in the capital in a long time.
KATE ALLVEY
Photo by Federica Burelli