Music 04/15/2008

I Went to see NOFX & Backstage Passport

I went to see NOFX last night at the Knitting Factory where they premiered their new show Backstage Passport and then played a full-set. The TV show was good, and it gives you a good idea of what it’s like behind the scenes of putting together a punk rock show (sometimes unsuccessfully) in dangerous Third World countries like Columbia and Peru.

There was a lot of cursing in in the show, and since it’s made for FUSE.TV, they bleeped out all the bad words, which was kind of a bummer because I like to hear how people talk in the real world, and the bleep sounds got in the way. All and all, the TV show was good, funny, and entertaining, and I’m really looking forward to seeing the rest of the episodes, but the highlight of the night for me was definitely the concert part.

NOFX always puts on a great show, even if they fuck up the songs, which happens a lot. They played probably 20 songs, which were mostly requests from the audience, and it definitely wasn’t the best set list I’ve seen them play (they played some of their less popular songs, less popular because they’re not good), but seeing a NOFX show is as much about the entertainment factor for me as it is about the actual music, and these guys are always funny and entertaining. There was a lot of audience participation, with fans being allowed to jump up on stage and sing in place of Fat Mike whenever they wanted to (thanks to the Knitting Factory for the friendly and lax security). The biggest bummer was that they didn’t play The Decline, which the whole audience wanted. One guy even jumped up on stage and tried to give them an extra $20 to play the song, but they wouldn’t. But still, overall, it was another great show put on by the best punk band in the world.

Here’s the info again for the FUSE.TV show that premiere’s TONIGHT. Be sure to check it out.

• Show: NOFX: Backstage Passport
• Premiere: Tuesday, April 15 at 10pm ET
• Episodes: 8 Episodes Show
• length: 30 minutes
• Channel: DirecTV 339 / EchoStar 158;cable subscribers, local listing

NOFX on Fuel.TV

Tags: backstagepassport, fusetv, nofx