More than 5,000 people packed Poble Espanyol last night for the Nofx’s first concert in Barcelona as part of their farewell tour, stingy with the European dates but generous with the city of Barcelona, ​​the only one graced with three consecutive concerts by the Californian formation, which puts final point to their 40-year career with 40 concerts in each of which they will perform forty songs. A farewell that seems strange after seeing the good form and good vibes that the band gives off on stage, surrounded by an audience that gave it their all during the hour and 45 minutes that a performance lasted marked by the fast hardcore rhythm that the drums set. for almost the entire concert.
As happened on his previous visit in 2019, the rain joined the party, although without really bothering the event, starring as announced by the albums So Long and Thanks For All the Shoes and White Trash, Two Heebs and a Bean, in the same way that today it will be the turn of Wolves in Wolves’ Clothing and Punk in Drublic, while on Sunday they will perform Pump Up the Valuum and The Decline. A very marked program that left those attending last night’s concert without enjoying classic songs by the band such as Leave it alone or Don’t call me White (today they will surely sound), which were especially missed at the end of the concert, when many expected some encores that did not arrive.
But until then, Poble Espanyol enjoyed a long and complete dose of punk with a line-up that included Barcelona’s Subterranian kids, followed by Comeback Kid and another classic band like the Lagwagon, who played a sold-out concert for half an hour. in which they performed classics by the band such as Razor Burn or May 16, as well as a hardcore version of Brown eyed girl that set the first rows in front of the stage in motion while in the most remote areas the calimocho competed with beer as the most popular drink . Its consumers were mostly men in their forties, as was to be expected, the punk generation that has lived and will die with this music, proud but without heirs of the same height, as seems to happen in other seventies and eighties genres, case of heavy or rock.
Nofx’s turn came just after 10:30 when Fat Mike, Eric Melvin, El Hefe and Eric Sandin appeared on stage while the technicians were still just assembling the stage elements and doing the final tests. They greeted the attendees with their trademark pachorra, many of whom had come from France and Portugal to enjoy the last concert by the Californians, protagonists of a curious punk revival that will bring Bad Religion to Primavera Sound and Offspring to Cruïlla, three of the seminal Californian punk rock bands of the nineties (together with Green Day) performing in a month and a half in Barcelona.
The concert kicked off with Stickin’ in my eye, driving the track crazy, which began to jump and dance while the glasses full of beer flew over their heads and Eric Melvin, without a shirt to hide his beer belly, does not stop jumping, flipping his dreadlocks in all directions. An atmosphere that exploded when the band chained together two or three of their short, fast-paced songs like Bob or Kids on the K-Hole that combined with the ska rhythms of All outta angst, played by keyboardist Karina Denike, or reggae like Eat the meek. .
“We are going to play all the songs in the world” said a boastful Fat Mike who appeared with blue hair and the desire to joke that characterizes him, and who did not take away the glasses thrown on stage, which he dodged with tremendous professionalism without stop playing at any time. Songs like The bag, Kill rockstars or Dad’s bad news sounded, performed with hardly a breather and chanted by the entire audience, including the select group of VIPs who followed the concert from the stage itself, a shocking luxury with the image of the Nofx as a band that is not for sale
But the years go by for everyone, including Fat Mike, who at 56 and fully detoxified (now he prefers sadado, his other great passion) took a break at concert time “to pee”, that is, to go to the urinal Five minutes of respite before returning to the charge in a second part where they continued to play songs from So long… and White trash… like All his suits are torn or She’s gone, although there was also room for new pieces like the It ain’t lonely at the bottom, from the 2016 album First ditch effort, while the band joked about the many years they had together or the sexual games they had played with the drummer’s mother.
Although the theme that most activated the public was undoubtedly the Champs Elysees, chanted by the entire public just as the rain fell heavily again and the beer flew through the air again while some attendees rolled over the heads of the public in the center track, proof that punk is also a matter of traditions that have not understood for years. A party that ended with Kill all the White man performed by El Hefe, after which the veteran quartet melted into an emotional hug in the middle of the stage before saying goodbye for ten minutes to an audience that refused to leave Poble Espanyol , as if they were reluctant to accept that this party will not happen again.