NOFX, Sun, 04 Nov 2007 16:40:01, O2 Academy Brixton, London, The Event on Last.fm.
From a Gig Review post:
Support:
TAT
I spent the day hanging out with Alex and Shonagh and hadn’t left their place till 8 so I’d miss the support acts, get in get a good position and just see NOFX. No such bloody luck. After grabbing a t-shirt and CD (£12 and £5 respectively) and dumping my bag in the cloakroom (with my camera, idiot) I snaked my way down close to the front to one of the sets of barriers that are dotted around Brixton Academy. I then had to stand through TAT. Well I think it was them they were one of the supports and that’s what their drum kit said but if they did say who they were the sound was too shit to make it out.
They may actually be a good band but the sound was horrible so trying to make out any words or melodies was impossible. Of course poor sound is par for the course for a support band here (and most venues) so I wont hold it against them. They left the stage eventually and NOFX appeared half an hour later with a little bit of fiddling around (new drum kit, check of monitor levels, the usual). I’ve only seen NOFX once as Ireland isn’t somewhere they play too regular. OK their Gigography says they played Dublin 3 times in 1991 but the next Dublin show is 2004 when I saw them, that’s 13 years.
The last time was great craic if annoying as it was on a Sunday and ran till quite late (on purpose I hate Toxic promotions for that) so had to get a taxi back to Lusk :-/. So there were pretty high expectations here. The setlist was great, I knew tons of it from "The Cause" to "Lisa and Louise" mixed in with newer stuff, less played stuff and they seemed to be having fun. Now here’s the kicker the gig was awful, I usually am quite positive about any gig I’m at but this? This was awful the sound did not improve after TAT, I could barely make out what Fat Mike was saying or what songs were being played until the chorus and then it was only the crowd singing back the lyrics which identified it. Straining to hear anything or make out what sing was playing wore thin very quickly. I stayed for the entire thing and if I hadn’t left my camera in my bag I would have got some great photos as I was really close and they used white light for the entire show. It got slightly better for the "encore" when they played things like "I want to be an alcoholic", "Fuck the kids" (parts 1 and 2) and a load of other short one and eventually finished with "The Brews" which is a favourite of mine. The sound never got better but the crowd’s energy carried this last section.
I’ll think twice about going to see NOFX again. They’re a well established live act, playing, touring and recording since 1985 and they still cant get their sound right for a venue like Brixton?
Later days,
Halo.