NOFX: They Still (Don't) Suck Live

NOFX played last night at In The Venue.

Let's do a recap, shall we?

I thought you might be interested. Here we go, kids!

I showed up and No Use For A Name were already playing. Shows end really early here, so they start really early. Something I still haven't gotten used to. And quite frankly, is bothersome. But that's a blog for another day.

I saw about three songs from NUFAN before they wrapped up, which was disappointing because they do a really awesome live show. I saw them twice in Phoenix over the last year, once at Marquee Theatre with about 2,000 people and once at Clubhouse with about 500. Both shows were intense and judging by the crowd reaction to the few songs that I saw the show at In the Venue was no different.

Then came the long wait for NOFX. The time seemed to go by surprisingly fast. The music played over the PA was a good mix of old and new school punk. But then it took a drastic left turn to "Jamrock" by Stephen Marley. As the opening notes of the song played, NOFX walked on stage. An interesting tongue-in-cheek choice for an intro song from a group that is now one of the oldest (and best) punk bands around.

When Fat Mike got to the microphone, he announced that NOFX hadn't played "a club in Salt Lake City in like 5 years." And went on about the setup of the venue, with the bar patrons behind cage-like fencing saying, "this is nice, you have the Mormons out here (in the big room) and the Jews in there (behind the fence)." They introduced the first song as one that was "literally for you guys, we mean it." First song: Straight Edge.

The band then quickly ran through "Murder the Government" (featuring alternate lyrics), "Dinosaurs Must Die," "Franco Un-American," and "Perfect Government" before pausing. A group of people started chanting "NOFX! NOFX! NOFX!" and Fat Mike responded saying, "We're right here, you don't have to yell our name." And continued with a chant of his own "Audience! Audience! Audience!" A pretty hilarious moment.

Fat Mike introduced the next song as a new one, but it wasn't all that new. They played "Seeing Double At the Triple Rock" from their last official full-length Wolves in Wolves' Clothing, which was released over two years ago. As they were talking about the next song, they mentioned how it was for the real fans, and if you didn't know the song it was really going to suck because it's so long. I knew immediately that we were about to get eighteen minutes of sheer punk bliss: "The Decline".

When this song/EP was first released, I would have been happy if the band had played just that and then left. I still kind of feel that way today. The last time I saw NOFX they started with "The Decline". I thought after the first section that they would stop, but they kept going and going and going until they'd played the entire thing. I was in such elation that they really could have stopped right there and I would have been content. In Salt Lake, though, it was obvious they were going to play the whole song from the get go, and the crowd erupted joyously.

The band (and by that, I mean Fat Mike) kept bantering with the audience, as NOFX are known to do, and flowing through their set. The Fat One kept taking drinks from his solo cup, conveniently placed in a cup holder on his mic stand. They played fan favorites "Bob," "Eat the Meek," "Linoleum," and others. They also played a song about Salt Lake City that, according to Fat Mike, had taken five minutes to write and was reading the lyrics (he wasn't). It was essentially about how weak SLC is because of the Mormons, but California has too many Jews. Classic NOFX.

They ended the set with "Kill All the White Man" before exiting the stage. They didn't come back; In the Venue shuts down at 11pm and in lieu of playing an encore they just kept playing rather than wasting time by leaving the stage. As the crowd began to leave, a lot of stuff was thrown from the stage into the crowd, people diving everywhere to get a piece of NOFX. I always hang around awhile after a show like this, because you never really know what's going to happen, especially with NOFX. Once, at the Marquee Theatre in Tempe, Fat Mike said "We're doing a European encore tonight. Good night, everybody." The house lights came up and most everyone left. But the gear was never touched and so a small group of people hovered around. Security didn't kick anyone out, and 45 minutes later they came back and played five more songs. So I don't leave a NOFX show until the gear is getting packed up.

Good thing I stuck around. No, they didn't come back to play, but one of the security guards was grabbing set lists and handing them out. After saying there weren't any left, the dude next to me and myself spotted one by Smelly's drum kit. The security guard went to grab it and the dude next to me offered to Ro Sham Bo for it. Well...



One thing to let you all know. Don't Ro Sham Bo me for anything. I will beat you.

After that I took off and caught the train home.

A great night of punk was had by all. There were a lot of people on the train that had gone to the show so we were all talking about how great it was. A great ride home from the punk rock show.

If you don't know about NOFX, you should kick yourself. Then you should check out their official website and their MySpace Page.

NOFX: They Still (Don't) Suck Live