Backstage Passport Part Three is great, and so are the new, weird NOFX songs that played throughout the movie. The guys in the band admitted that they basically stopped giving a shit fifteen years ago and their albums from the last fifteen years prove that. But, this was still a real fun time. The whole theatrical experience was kind of like seeing them live, but instead of getting hit in the face by full 16 ounce beer cans and almost fainting from exhaustion, we were comfortably seated with drinks being served to us. It was a nice change of pace. Fat Mike almost dying is funnier than it sounds. Melvin trying so hard so remember stuff is gold. Hefe being Hefe proves he’s still the jefe. And, Smelly is the only sane one, which is the least entertaining. These four dudes all add something unique to the band and their music exemplifies that. There’s always a little something different to their songs, especially when compared to bands like Pennywise or something. This movie feels the same way. It’s almost your standard documentary, but more NOFX-ed up.Also, it should be noted that the last time I saw NOFX live, some guy kept staring at my dick in the bathroom. That did not happen last night. But, the great Patrick Costello was sitting like ten chairs over from us and I’ve seen his dick many times.
I left having more questions than I did going in. I was really hoping to learn about the establishment of Fat Wreckchords, Mike as independent label boss, the mechanics/economics of distribution and touring in a pre-internet world, the conflicts that come from signing your friends and peers (who also just happen to be some of the most influential punk bands of all time).It also would’ve been cool to get the full story about the more mythic and silly stuff too, like Propaghandi cutting a diss record against Mike, while signed to him, for shaking John Kerry’s hand lmao. I feel like there’s a 12 year gap left unexplored. Instead it’s really just about 57 year old Mike…kinda crashing out? Still a wonderful time capsule for people like me who were radicalized by I HeardThey Suck Live in 6th grade. It’s just so tragic to think about Mike and Melvin having a legacy tarnishing fight 40 years in over something that usually breaks most bands up four years in. I will always love these boys.
So Fat Mike is absolutely Joe Dick. And Eric Melvin is definitely the Billy Tallent member of the band. Come to think of it, Erik “Smelly” Sandin is kind of the John Oxenberger of the group: a little out there and at one time very dependent on his “medicine”, though maintaining a friendly and relatively sunny disposition through it all. I guess that leaves Aaron Abeyta as Pipefitter and that even works too; El Hefe was there to do the damn work! And have a good time doing it!Does that mean that Chris Rest of Rich Kids on LSD (and eventually Lagwagon and No Use For a Name) is the Bucky Haight of this whole saga? I think it does, even though he and Fat Mike remain on good terms. I suppose that’s because ol’ modern day Joe Dick didn’t lie to the rest of his band about Chris being shot in the leg to convince them to go on a farewell tour. Though I’m sure they dropped a looooot of acid together; I mean they had to, right?Anyways a fun, fascinating and relatively unflinching look at a band that did it their own fuckin’ way for 40+ years, and we were all the richer for it. “And so we go, on with our livesWe know the truth, but prefer liesLies are simple, simple is blissWhy go against tradition when we canAdmit defeat, live in declineBe the victim of our own design?The status quo, built on suspectWhy would anyone stick out their neck?Fellow members, of Club "We've Got Ours"I'd like to introduce you to our host:He's got his and I've got mine, meet The Decline”
