Energized: The Offspring at the Fargodome (Fargo, ND February 6, 2026)

Offspring Setlist

1. Come Out and Play
2. All I Want
3. Want You Bad
4. Looking Out for #1
5. Staring at the Sun
6. Hit That / Original Prankster
7. Hammerhead
8. Make It All Right
9. Bad Habit
10. Paranoid (Black Sabbath cover)
11. Crazy Train (Ozzy Osbourne cover)
12. I Wanna Be Sedated (Ramones cover)
13. Drum Solo
14. Gone Away (Played on Piano)
15. Hey Jude (The Beatles cover)
16. Gotta Get Away
17. Why Don’t You Get a Job?
18. Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)
19. The Kids Aren’t Alright
    
    — Encore —
20. You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid
21. Self Esteem

The only word to describe my state pulling up to the FargoDome last Friday night. Twenty-four hours earlier, I was in Peoria, Illinois for Ghost, but we weren’t about to let that deter us from catching The Offspring and Bad Religion on our home turf. Immediately after that show, we were back on the road—stopping in Iowa to sleep before finishing the drive to Fargo the next day.

Kicking off their North American 2026 Supercharged World Tour on January 16 in Bakersfield, California, The Offspring and guests Bad Religion are already twelve shows deep. But no matter how we—or the bands—arrived, the tour is called Supercharged for a reason. As the lights dim and adrenaline kicks in, any lingering fatigue fades away.

A band whose formation predates my own by several years, Bad Religion has stood the test of time and has only grown in respect—not only within the punk scene, but across rock and metal circles as well. Even those unfamiliar with the band would recognize their iconic “Crossbuster” emblem: a black Latin cross overlaid with a red prohibition symbol. Never shying away from political or social commentary, the symbol represents not just devotion to the band, but often a nod to shared beliefs.

Bad Religion opens their set, and their command of the stage is immediately apparent. You’re pulled in by a powerful, tightly locked-in rhythm section courtesy of Jamie Miller on drums and Jay Bentley on bass. Even from the cheap seats, the crowd—including myself—is instantly in sync. Add sharp rhythm and lead work from Brian Baker and Mike Dimkich, along with Greg Graffin’s incisive vocals, and it becomes immediately clear why this band has earned enduring respect in both mainstream and underground circles.

Something I always admire about a band with such longevity is looking out among the crowd and seeing the range of ages; often smiling to myself one of these kids may have heard American Jesus for the first time this year.  A band with compelling lyrics that fuel a sense of shared belief, the music joins generations.  Collective intent feels present even as the music feels driving, clean, and unadorned.  The purposeful decision to focus on precision over adornment.  It is this balance on a razor’s edge that makes Bad Religion’s music feel so fundamental and their set perfectly captivates this.

With the crowd entertained during intermission by The Offspring’s gorilla mascot, Smash—alongside a roaming blimp and the crowd cam—it was time for the headliners to take the stage. Only four years the junior of Bad Religion and established in 1984, The Offspring struck an impressive balance between longtime fan favorites and newer material, no small feat given the depth of their catalog.

The Offspring made good on their tour name, Supercharged, and like many bands with an expansive career, they’ve perfected their craft without losing their ferocity. They were absolute masters of the stage. The set took off at a lightning pace—myself scrambling to keep up while photographing, with three songs blowing by in the blink of an eye. The cadence didn’t let up until nearly an hour in, when the band smartly shifted gears just before the energy risked becoming predictable.

Adding variety to the set was some good-natured banter from both Dexter and Noodles, followed by a detour into a series of inventive cover mashups. These included Black Sabbath’s Paranoid, Ozzy Osbourne’s Crazy Train, a punked-up take on In the Hall of the Mountain King (Edvard Grieg), and I Wanna Be Sedated (Ramones), during which Smash returned to the stage to whip the crowd back into a frenzy.

Just as the energy peaked again with Gotta Get Away, the road crew rolled a white baby grand piano onto the stage. Dexter then asked the crowd to turn on their phone lights in memory of loved ones who had departed this realm before launching into a beautiful piano rendition of Gone Away. Not one to let a great instrument go to waste, Dexter stayed at the keys to lead the crowd in a communal sing-along of Hey Jude.

The band then launched into their final ascent toward the end of the show with Why Don’t You Get a Job and Pretty Fly (for a White Guy), the latter featuring two fans in familiar blue jerseys and backward ball caps joining them onstage. With that, The Offspring powered through a final three-song stretch, culminating in Self Esteem, before waving goodbye to their thoroughly rambunctious crowd.

Exhausted or not, this was the kind of night that reminds you why you chase shows across state lines. Watching Bad Religion and The Offspring share a bill wasn’t just a trip through punk history—it was proof that longevity doesn’t have to come at the cost of urgency, and that decades in, both bands remain as sharp, relevant, and supercharged as ever.