Is NOFX done for good? We hope not – but they say this is their final tour, and for now, we believe them. The band is performing 40 shows, in 40 cities, with 40 songs. We attended their final San Diego performance on May 13th at Waterfront Park.
The band came out to “Timewarp” from Rocky Horror, perfect entrance music.
The opening songs included crowd favorites Linoleum, The Brews, and Stickin’ In My Eye. And as promised they performed two full albums (plus a handful of favorites). Every track from “So Long and Thanks For All the Shoes” was played. Which means we heard Monosyllabic Girl, Murder The Government, It’s My Job to Keep Punk Rock Elite, I’m Telling Tim, and the rest of the Album.
Special guests were included as The D.O.C. joined them onstage to help sing “Kill All The Whiteman”. And El Hefe’s son Jayden came out onstage to celebrate his 16th birthday.
They did a smart move for their second “full album” and played “The Decline” in it’s entirety. One 18 minute song of pure punk rock chaos. The aging punk rock crowd started the circle pit strong, lost some steam about half way in, but regained it when El Hefe’s trombone came out for the climax of the song.
The band closed with “Theme from A NOFX Album” and it was hysterical, especially with the lyrics of “We’re over 30” switched to “We’re pushing 60”. But, amongst the humor – you could feel the crowd, and the band grow somber as the set drew to a close, and their journey as a band reaches it’s potentially final days. Eric Melvin specifically wouldn’t finish the song and kept coming out repeating the main line on the accordion.
Is it really the end of NOFX? Or was this like every Rolling Stones, Ministry, KISS, “last ever tour” and we’ll see em again soon? Only time will tell, but if you have the chance to see this tour – see em while the set is still as perfect as it was when I first saw them in 1996. NOFX normally headlines with an hour and fifteen minute set, this tour is a special treat with the set being two full hours. Not bad for “We’re pushing 60”
Pictures & write up by Alex Napiwocki
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