Linkstew

Fat Mike pretty much summed it up when he said "We've got a new album out... it's pretty much like all our other albums... It's maybe our third best." at the NOFX concert Monday night.

Actually, it's not exactly like all their other albums: The whole package is significantly more political than normal for NOFX. And that's a good thing. From the album art, to the quip that "Somewhere in Texas there is a village without its Idiot," to songs like Franco Un-American and American Errorist and The Idiots are Taking Over, to the bonus video of "The Idiot Son of an Asshole" on the CD-ROM and the trailer for the documentary "Unprecedented" about the 2000 Presidential Election, to the essay talking about all of this in the liner notes, Errorism has plenty of political commentary to go around. Sure, maybe it's a little over the top, but so's the President, so maybe it'll balance out.

Right off the bat, pretty much every track is listenable, which is more than I can say for some other NOFX albums. Some of it feels a little like Ska (which the essay in the liner notes admits to), while the rest of it sounds like modern NOFX. There's nothing new here: There are no real departures from the last several albums, and the lyrics wear their meaning right on their faces, but I really don't mind. The whole album flows very well, with transitions between plenty of good songs and no terrible songs.

In addition to the overall solid track mix, the CD has some enjoyable bonus features. There's a video of Franco Un-American, and a bonus track/video of the band performing "The Idiot Son of an Asshole" (which is a great song I wish had been directly on the CD), a trailer for a documentary about the 2000 election, and a pretty poorly performed introduction to all of that by Fat Mike and Erik Melvin. Anyway, I felt like they actually enhanced the value of the whole package.

If you're a fan of NOFX, you should absolutely buy this album (if you haven't already). If you're new to NOFX, this album would be a very good place to start: there's nothing that's going to make your ears bleed. Better still, the record was released on Fat Wreck Chords, so you shouldn't feel at all bad about buying it. If you're still uncertain, you could pick up the Regaining Unconsciousness EP, which has three of the best tracks off the album (Medio-Core, The Idiots are Taking Over, and Franco Un-American) plus a bonus b-side and an amusing commercial for the album. Or you could get both, and support Fat Wreck twice. =) I give it a 4 out of 5.

Last night I saw NOFX at the Avalon Ballroom. I'd never been to a punk concert, and it certainly was a different experience, but I still had a lot of fun.

The venue was kind of a strange place to hold a concert, what with it being a ballroom and all. It was carpeted, too, which strikes me as a poor decision for a concert venue. But I suppose a carpeted floor was good for the people who were falling in the mosh pit. It wasn't huge, but it was plenty big for the number of people that were there.

Despite having pretty much all of the NOFX albums, there were certain songs that I was completely unable to recognize. And it's not because I didn't know the song, but because I was so occupied with not getting killed by the audience that I just wasn't paying that much attention to the song being played. The songs I distinctly remember them playing include All His Suits Are Torn, Fun Things to Fuck, Happy Fucking Birthday (you're not special), Bottles to the Ground, Murder the Government, The Moron Brothers, Theme From a NOFX Album, and Total Bummer. And off the new album, they played The Separation Between Church and Skate, Franco Un-american, and (I think) Medio-core.

They also played a new song which apparently isn't on The War on Errorism called The Idiot Son of an Asshole about our dear President, which I liked and really want to hear again. After that song, they said "You all should go out and register to vote and vote against the president. That's about enough politics for this show."

Two of my partners in crime made a sign that said said "LOWER!" and they held it up a couple of times during the show, and every time Fat Mike and El Hefe saw it and acknowledged it. The first time, Fat Mike joked that "We rehearsed, and we know 70 songs, and that's not one of them." A little later, El Hefe said "Hold it higher. Higher! Hold the lower sign higher!" Near the end of the concert, El Hefe asked, "What does that sign mean?" and Fat Mike replied "It's one of our songs. It's on the Dinosaurs Will Die EP." And then Fat Mike addressed the audience and explained, "He really doesn't know that song. All he listens to is hip-hop."

This concert was also my first experience in a mosh pit. I started out about 5 or 6 rows back, and I was a little taken aback when I glanced over my shoulder and realized there were people moshing around right behind me. It wasn't too much longer before I was sucked in, and instead of stay in the pit full time, I'd take about a lap, ricocheting off people in the pit and on the edge of the pit as I went, until I caught onto the edge of the pit again until the non-pit goers pushed me back in. At some point I got caught up in some arms, and took a head to my cheekbone, and it's still tender today. It was absolutely exhausting, and after about the first half of the concert, I bailed out and went and stood in the back of the theater for awhile. Then I went back into the pit when they played Bottles to the Ground and stayed there for the rest of the concert.

One cool thing about the mosh pit was that when someone fell, people all around them would immediately pull the fallen person back up. That renewed a little of my faith in humanity, or at least in punk fans. I was glad to know I was in company I could trust to not trample me.

Near the end of the show, they started joking "We've been playing almost 40 minutes... and we're almost 40... That seems pretty good." (I don't know how long they'd actually been playing). One thing I did kind of like is they said "We've got 4 more songs to play for you," and then they played six more songs instead. They didn't actually play an encore, and instead left it at playing the extra songs, and I think I actually liked that better than the whole encore facade.

They finished with Theme From a NOFX Album, which worked really well as a closer, and Erik Melvin played a long accordian fade out at the end that was pretty cool. Apparently they often close with that song these days, and some guy next to me gave a big double thumbs down and booed when they started playing it, but I still enjoyed it.

After the show, El Hefe and Fat Mike came back out for a few minutes, and El Hefe threw out some guitar picks that he'd signed. I felt one hit me, and I assumed it bounced off me, but then I realized it had landed on me and stayed there, so I now have a NOFX guitar pick signed by El Hefe. Sweet!

It was a fun, intense, but very tiring and slightly painful experience. I'll almost certainly be seeing NOFX again the next time they come around.

As if those three TMBG concerts at the end of the month weren't enough, it's come to my attention that there are three more concerts in May that I'll need to be going to:

• NOFX is playing at the Avalon Ballroom in SF on May 5th, the day before the new album (The War on Errorism) comes out.
• Kinky is playing at Bimbo's 365 Club on May 14th. (I saw and wrote about Kinky after I saw them last summer at Unlimited Sunshine. Since then, Kinky's CD has become a pretty permanent fixture in our ski trip music rotation.)
• And The Red Elivses are playing at Slim's on May 24th.

On the bright side, every one of those tickets was down in the $10-15 range... before the inconvenience charges, of course.