You would think that a band that hasn't had a hit single since the Clinton administration would welcome press coverage, but such is not the case on The Offspring's current "The S*** Is F***ed Up Tour" (their asterisks, not ours). I can confirm that not only are they denying most media requests, they denied ours as well as several other media outlets, but they are hand selecting any photos taken by the media before they allow their use, as per the pre-show release that media must agree too.

Perhaps it's a good thing as their show has been moved from the 4,400 seat Austin Music Hall to Stubb's Barbq in Austin, a venue that holds considerably less than half the Music Hall AND as of an hour before show time tickets are still available. And thats WITH Alkaline Trio as an opener! Maybe they are just trying to limit the "damage". I mean who wants to see pics of a band playing to an almost empty venue? If they were still booked into the Music Hall it would be an embarrassment.

As much as we like The Offspring , (I have been following them since their debut release in 89 and own all their releases except the current one, and have seen them perform 4 times), it's sad to see them fall so far, especially when just about every other road show in Austin seems to be selling out their Austin venues. It's disappointing as well when the other bands of the same era, Rancid, and Pennywise to name two, never seem to have problems granting media access when they tour the same venues.

We can only surmise The Offspring don't feel they need the coverage, though I suspect their ticket sales numbers might disagree. At least at Stubb's the show won't seem nearly as empty. If you go have fun, but don't look for us there.