What happens when the punks get old? In the case of NOFX, they hang it up with one “Final Tour.” Timed with the band’s 40-year anniversary, this run of shows taking place in 40 different cities around the world is sort of like an Elton John Farewell Yellow Brick Road send-off with a touch of Warped Tour and NOFX’s own Punk in Drublic beer fest blowouts all thrown together. For most of the tour stops, the SoCal cult favorites are pulling together a festival-style lineup of their friends and influences to beef up the bill. On Saturday, June 29th, NOFX’s Final Tour made its way to Portland, Oregon for the first of two shows at Waterfront Park.
The lineup for day one of the event featured a multi-generational roster of talent ranging from up-and-comers like Superfuct, Poli Van Dam, Bad Cop Bad Cop, and Mean Jeans alongside legends like T.S.O.L. and Subhumans. There was a festival-like atmosphere that unfolded along the Willamette River that runs through Portland. Unfortunately, the economics of modern times don’t align well with the punk DIY ethos, and it did feel like the fans were getting a tad fleeced everywhere, from tickets to merch to drinks ($14 Monster Hard Tea, anyone?) and food. This might not be what NOFX intended, but it’s what we got and it might be one more sign that the end of true punk culture is nigh. Luckily, most fans didn’t seem to mind as they gleefully kicked up dust in a mosh pit that would expand in size with each set of the day. Even complaints of knee injuries and back pain couldn’t stop the aging punks from diving into the multi-generational morass of the pit.
Earlier highlights of the day included Portland’s own Mean Jeans with a set of rock and roll played fast and hard that stirred up some serious Ramones energy. T.S.O.L. delivered a set under graying skies and rain that somehow turned the grounds wet and dusty at the same time, with Jack Grisham playing the role of jovial elder statesman in his signature blazer. Backed by his hard-charging bandmates, Grisham snarled his way through an impressive set of old-school punk that included songs like “Fuck You Tough Guy,” “Terrible People,” “World War III,” and “Satellites.”
Subhumans only upped the ante with their politically-charged intensity that saw the angry Brits railing against the man with the same level of anarchic ferociousness that has defined them for over forty years. Their set drifted into bouncy, bass-driven hardcore territory as the band fired off songs like “No,” “Evolution,” and “Peroxide” all barked out with fearsome precision by Dick Lucas.
Musically speaking, the MVP of the festival was Pennywise. Their set was unquestionably the most powerful of the day and set the bar high for NOFX to follow. Blasting off with the rapid-fire vocals of “Homeless” before machine-gunning straight into “The World,” the band gave a performance that balanced their formidable punk chops and light-hearted banter with the crowd. They had fun roasting NOFX’s Fat Mike and even covered “Bob” before inviting the man himself to come out and sing along to a cover of Bad Religion’s “Do What You Want.” Other highlights of the set included a surprisingly on-point cover of Nirvana’s “Territorial Pissings” rivaling the original, the eponymous “Pennywise,” a mosh-inducing “Fuck Authority,” and “Society” all played with a level of vigor that defied their greying hair.
With the crowd properly boozed up and ready, NOFX finally took the stage to the Rocky Horror Picture Show favorite “Time Warp” before acknowledging their first show in 1985 in Portland at the long-gone club Satyricon. The band was in fine form as they kicked off with the pop-punk glory of “60%.” Early favorites of the deep cut-laden setlist included the fist-pumping anthem “The Cause” and a take on “Perfect Government” that tapped into a vein of punk rock nostalgia as the crowd sang along. This being a NOFX show, nearly every song was interrupted by banter and stories that often found Fat Mike reflecting on the band’s journey over the last 40 years. The members of NOFX hardly looked and sounded ready for retirement as they knocked out songs like “What’s The Matter With My Parents Today?” and a delightfully sloppy reggae-punk take on Rancid’s “Radio.”
After getting the crowd properly pumped on the “Sportin’ anti swastika tattoos/Oi oi we’re the boys” shout-a-long lines of “The Brews,” Fat Mike announced, “We’re gonna do 11 songs in 7 minutes” before launching into an almost medley-like run that started with “Fuck The Kids” and barreled through songs like “Juice Head,” “Monosyllabic Girl,” “I’m Telling Time,” “See Her Pee,” “I Wanna Be an Alcoholic” and others before ending back with “Fuck The Kids.” The band has said they will play 40 songs each night of this tour, and they came really close to it. Truth be told, it might have happened were it not for Pennywise guitarist Fletcher Dragge stumbling onto the stage and tackling Fat Mike into the drum kit during “Theme from a NOFX Album.” Even if it did cut things short by a few minutes, and even if Fat Mike actually did look injured, this felt like the kind of explosive ending befitting of punk rock’s greatest rabble-rousers. These punks may be getting up there in years, but they still know how to party.
In the end, the day delivered everything you would want and expect from both NOFX and a punk rock festival, even if most of the fans and the musicians had to muster up a little more youthful vigor to power through it. While there are still a handful of shows to go in the “Final Tour,” with the grand exit taking place in Los Angeles in October, NOFX’s first night in Portland had all the hallmarks of a last bow. Time will tell if this is truly the end for the band – many bands reunite after these types of tours – but Saturday’s show felt like a true proper send-off to go out in a blaze of glory.
