Gig review: NOFX + Frenzal Rhomb at the Hordern Pavilion, Sydney

Live review: NOFX + Frenzal Rhomb at Hordern Pavilion, Sydney, Saturday, January 20 2024

By CORIN SHEARSTON

ON April 21 1995, NOFX played their first ever show in Sydney at the Phoenician Club, 173 Broadway – a long-gone CBD venue that also hosted acts like Silverchair and INXS. January 21 2024, as an alternative American band that peaked commercially during the nineties, NOFX were playing their final ever Sydney show at the very much larger Hordern Pavilion.

Joining NOFX for their own live set and a fun introductory conversation were their old friends in Sydney’s own Frenzal Rhomb, who first performed alongside NOFX at the Phoenician Club with Toe To Toe and Gilgamesh on that aforementioned April day, nearly 30 years ago. One day prior to their first meeting, NOFX had played to 120 young people at Wollongong Youth Centre, joined by Bodyjar and Slobplant. Adding further nostalgia value to their final tour of Australia, Bodyjar were on the bill for NOFX’s first night at The Hordern, alongside Charlotte & The Harlots.

Conversing with Fat Mike, Eric Melvin and Aaron ‘El Hefe’ Abeyta onstage at the Hordern, after a rendition of NOFX’s most well-known song “Linoleum” was blasted over the PA – but with new, show-relevant lyrics re-recorded by Frenzal Rhomb – Jason Whalley and Lindsay ‘The Doctor’ McDougall spoke with a calm tone of admiration for the highly successful independent career of NOFX. Reflecting on their long, intertwined history  while adding in much of their trademark wit and irreverence, Jay and The Doctor kept proceedings casual but well-informed through their radio-trained banter and research. Their questions and comments resulted in many pieces of new NOFX information for fans to take home, some of which touched on how Melvin first called Mike to join a punk band he was starting in Los Angeles in 1983, before the skate-loving duo met drummer Erik ‘Smelly’ Sandin at Hollywood’s grimy Cathay De Grande club that year and recruited El Hefe nine years later in 1992.

Frenzal Rhomb’s first meeting with NOFX inspired Mike to sign them onto his Fat Wreck Chords label to release their 1995 EP 4 Litres. At the time, Fat Wreck had just released their first compilation, Fat Music For Fat People, which sold for $5 a pop at their Phoenician Club merch stand and introduced many young Aussie punks to bands they had never heard before, such as Rancid, Lagwagon and Propagandhi.

“When you’re actually being offered lots of money by major recording labels and you choose to stay independent [on Fat Wreck Chords and Epitaph], it’s pretty fuckin impressive,” Jay said, praising NOFX for the mid-nineties period of their highly successful career that has ultimately resulted in over eight million album sales worldwide, without the support of a major label or mainstream radio. It’s clear that the love between these two bands and their lead singers runs deep, as well as NOFX’s love of Australia.

Beginning their punchy, hit-filled set with a live cover of The Everly Brothers’ “When Will I Be Loved”, that they cleverly segued into onstage after it was played over the PA, Frenzal Rhomb kicked off proceedings with the first song off their latest album, The Cup Of Pestilence. Jay, Lindsay, Gordy and new bassist Dal Failure thundered into “Where Drug Dealers Take Their Kids” before unleashing the album’s second track “Gone To The Dogs”. They then took fans back to 2011 with the mosh-friendly “Bird Attack”.

Frenzal Rhomb balanced the majority of their set between songs from the 10-20s and a range of nineties hits, such as “Never Had So Much Fun” (whose timeless intro featured Fat Mike on vocals), “You Are Not My Friend”, “Mr Charisma” and a closing “Punch In The Face”, all played ferociously and tightly. Back catalogue songs like “Genius”, “Bucket Bong”, “I Miss My Lung” and “I Went Out With A Hippy & Now I Love Everyone Except For Her” were all added in. The high-impact mosh was upheld for the duration of their set and the entire night, post-chat, as was the loud singing from the crowd, enhanced by airborne alcohol and bodily fluids. A refreshing sight to see in a post-COVID world.

To uphold the tradition of honouring the first rock ‘n’ roll song that ever excited Fat Mike, “The Time Warp” from The Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack was played over the PA to signal the start of NOFX’s two-hour, two-set headlining performance – their final send-off to the harbour city.

In recent years, their headlining slots have been rounded out by a few more bands. Other times, they’ve had to play condensed, hit-heavy sets for festival bills. This time around, the show was rightfully theirs, much to the delight of the fans who revelled in hearing live back catalogue bangers from three showcased albums, such as “Falling In Love” and “Kids Of The K-Hole” from So Long And Thanks For All The Shoes, “She’s Gone” from White Trash, Two Heebs And A Bean, their 18-minute long masterpiece ‘The Decline’, and other great tracks from other years. Their first night at the Hordern focused on another randomised selection of songs, mainly chosen from The War On Errorism, Wolves In Wolves Clothing and Punk In Drublic, their gold-charting 1994 album that started to grow their Australian fanbase one year before their performance at the Phoenician Club.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a NOFX show without reckless onstage moves, mohawks, dreadlocks, snide jabs, a few taboo subjects (partially to weird out a young boy held aloft on the shoulders of his dad, an all ages show after all), and guest musicians, such as their current keyboard player and backing vocalist Karina Deniké (Dance Hall Crashers). Having previously seen NOFX in Sydney in 2018 and 2022, it was also my first time not seeing Fat Mike perform in a dress, but with shorts and a singlet reading ‘DECRIMINALISE ALREADY’. Despite a shaky, opening “Soul Doubt”, in which Melvin’s guitar mostly didn’t work, and Mike started the opening riff at a slower pace, they were soon back on their feet and flying. After their five minute, mid-show interval, they launched back into two of the fastest songs from their set, “Falling In Love” and “It’s My Job To Keep Punk Rock Elite”, their mission statement, built from the brutally thrashing beats that Smelly nailed behind his drums despite battling an illness that kept from participating in the group’s introductory conversation with Jay and Lindsay.

One of the main highlights of the night was definitely “The Decline”, complete with Eric Melvin’s raspy, closing ‘Mel yells’ and Mike’s speedy, tricky bass lines. His nasal raspiness is still second to none. For the closing part of the song, the last in their second and last set, a full, marching brass band was brought on stage, which was organised by Frenzal Rhomb and allegedly comprised of members of folk punk groups Ess-Em, and The Dave Berry All-Stars, wielding various shiny instruments, such as trumpets, trombones and even a sousaphone. Hefe doesn’t blow at blowing either, having added tasteful trumpet and trombone to songs such as “Eat The Meek” and the novel proceedings of “Buggley Eyes”. From where I could see them, across the concrete and steel expanse of the Hordern, joy was the primary emotion NOFX felt on stage, right after finishing their last ever Sydney show. They left the stage to the sounds of “Science Fiction/Double Feature”, The Rocky Horror Picture Show’s opening song.

Paired with brotherly onstage camaraderie, their emotional, political songwriting and melodic catchiness once again proved how NOFX became one of the world’s most successful independent acts. Not bad for a band that started as four hoodlums who apparently made no money for the first eight years of their career and self-admittedly ‘sucked’ for their first decade. Memories of their gigs will live on in some of our hearts. Their provocative spirit will live on in some of our farts.