NOFX Final Tour – Brisbane Review
“Mummy, why are you going out on a Wednesday?” “Shut up, bitch, it’s NOFX.”
While we may not agree with his parenting tips, Fat Mike Burkett is a damn good songwriter.
Over the past two nights at Brisbane’s Fortitude Music Hall, NOFX have played through (most of) six of the band’s more prestigious albums, as their Final Tour reaches the mid-point of the six-show run.
Tuesday saw Brisbane locals Flangipanis opening the night to an impressive crowd size, considering the early start time. Frenzal Rhomb were up next. This was the last time they’ll share the stage with NOFX, and they could not have put on a better performance. These guys have been around the block a few times, but there’s no denying they’re at the top of their game, smashing through a killer set while the entire room sang along with gusto.
Wednesday saw VOIID, another Brisbane band making an impressive reputation for themselves, open the night, followed by The Bennies, complementing the lineup with their unique brand of stoner party punk.
The two-night engagement, the final shows to ever be played on Meanjin soil, promised three albums each night; Wolves’ In Wolves Clothing, Punk In Drublic, and The War On Errorism on night one, before following up with White Trash, Two Heebs and a Bean, So Long And Thanks For All The Shoes, along with The Decline completing the lineup and proving the perfect track to end their stay; “We’ve only got one song left, then we have to go“ Mike joked before the band launched into their 18 minute masterpiece. In true NOFX style, this was not the usual start-to-finish play-through, but both nights comprised of a 40 song setlist that did indeed include most of the songs from the albums, along with a handful of songs from their other records, and a sneaky cover of Rancid’s Radio thrown into the mix.
Mike’s deadpan banter game was stong, citing Brisbane as being “The second best city in Australia. Brisbane does have the biggest assholes though, but that just means the punk shows are better!” to which a roar erupted from the crowd.
Erik Sandin aka Smelly on drums, kept the rhythm section firing on all cylinders – a tough job with Mike as his counterpart, but the occasional drumstick pelted at his back helped keep him on track. Midway through playing the previously retired Linoleum from Punk In Drublic, Frenzal Rhomb’s drummer Gordy commandeered the kit and lay down his own brand of warp-speed drumming to finish off the song while Smelly enjoyed a beer.
Eric Melvin on guitar and vocals is, somehow, still jumping after 40 years. At the top of his game musically, Melvin was peering through each and every track, despite the Queensland heat. “I’ve lost ten pounds since we arrived“ he admitted, inspiring Gordy’s Mum to walk out on stage and towel dry both Melvin and Mike, mid-song. That was perhaps the most heartwarming thing one will ever see at a punk show.
El Hefé is an enigma. Absolutely slaying on guitar, trumpet, trombone, vocals, and Australian slang. Hefé greets the crowd with “How’s your bum for grubs?”, and continues dropping these nuggets throughout both shows, including the universally hilarious “I’m so hungry I could eat the ass out of a low-flying duck!”
Fat Mike practiced, and it paid off. Lines like “we don’t usually play these songs, because they’re really hard!”, were thrown around before nailing the most intricate basslines. Sure, Mike forgot the words to a few songs, but we’ve seen shows where he was so messed up that he forgot the words to most of the songs, so the effort put in ahead of this run was obvious.
The running joke with this band is that they never put in more than 60%, so you never really know what you’re going to get at a NOFX show, but this time around it was different – in a 2022 interview discussing the band retiring with a final tour, Mike said they would be putting in 100% to say thank you for 40 years of support (even if they weren’t that great for the first decade). For this tour, in Brisbane at least, they certainly delivered. Admittedly, it was probably closer to 90%, but still, they’re approaching 60 and they played for two hours each night.
In all seriousness, these performances defied expectations and became one of the band’s finest, and most memorable Australian tours, the perfect way to say “So long, and thanks for all the beers.”