As a photographer/writer for the Minneapolis music blog The Show Last Night, this past week I had the opportunity to shoot one of my all time favorite bands, NOFX! Here are a few of my photos from that night, along with an excerpt from my first official post on The Show Last Night. (I only dropped one f-bomb, my mother would be so proud.)
NOFX
NOFX played to a sold out crowd in Minneapolis, their first stop back in the U.S. during their First Ditch Effort Tour. The Cabooze was packed tighter than a clown car and Fat Mike, in true form, had just as many funny things to say between songs. All joking aside though, Fat Mike did have some serious topics to cover throughout the evening; the current political situation concerning our new President-elect, Eric Melvin’s journey to kick his heroin addiction, the realization for himself that he needed to sober up and make some changes, and even coping with the loss of his close friend Tony Sly (from the band No Use For A Name).
This concert felt like a more personal experience than any previous NOFX concert that I’ve ever attended, but how could it not? NOFX’s 13th album, First Ditch Effort, is the most personal record the band has ever released by far, not that blunt honesty hasn’t been a consistent theme for the subject matter of their songs in the past. These songs cover some extremely personal topics that have a direct reference to immensely personal stories which were released in their book earlier this year (The Hepatitis Bathtub and Other Stories).
If you or I were in their shoes right now we would probably feel like we were walking around with our skin on inside out, nothing left to hide. But these guys wear it well, they own it, they look legitimately happy – and they sounded incredible.
PEARS
PEARS may only be a couple years old (formed in 2014), but they clearly have not wasted any time making fans as there were a noticeable number of people singing along during their set tonight. If that wasn’t impressive enough, they have a stage presence that can’t be ignored. A high energy show backed by high energy hardcore music is a mild way of describing this band. The band’s latest album Green Star is a shot of the finest gourmet hardcore punk espresso you can fathom injected straight into your eardrums.
Useless ID
Hailing from Israel, Useless ID delivered a flawless performance at the Cabooze tonight. Their upbeat songs are hard to stand still to, and with a 21 year career it’s no surprise that they know exactly how to craft such incredibly catchy songs. Useless ID released the album State Is Burning earlier this year. It’s a solid album from start to finish, my personal favorites are “Land of Idiocracy,” “How to Dismantle an Atom Bomb,” “45 seconds” and “We Don’t Want the Airwaves.”
