\n
By <\/span>James H. Martin<\/span><\/p>\nPhotographs by <\/span>Max Slobodda<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nJune 18, 2024<\/time><\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s like going to your own wake.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mike Burkett, known exclusively in the punk rock world as Fat Mike, was talking about the farewell tour for his band, NOFX, during which the group is traveling to 40 cities, with 40 songs per concert, celebrating their 40 years as a band.<\/p>\n
The tour started a year ago in Barcelona and will end where it all began for them, in Los Angeles, with three shows from Oct. 4-6. Fat Mike, 57, along with Eric Melvin, Aaron Abeyta and Erik Sandlin are, collectively, experiencing the feels.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is it,\u201d Fat Mike, the band\u2019s singer, songwriter and bassist, said of the prospect of touring again after this. \u201cWe aren\u2019t Kiss, or Black Sabbath, or M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce. This is the end.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s kind of sad, saying goodbye,\u201d said Mr. Abeyta, 58, the group\u2019s guitarist and trumpet player, who goes by the nickname El Hefe. \u201cWe\u2019re family. We\u2019re basically brothers. We\u2019ve lived on the road together, on a bus, sometimes in the same bed.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\u201cIt\u2019s weird, it\u2019s uncertain, it\u2019s scary,\u201d said Mr. Sandlin, 57, the group\u2019s drummer who was nicknamed Smelly for the drug-fueled flatulence of his earlier days. (He\u2019s been sober and clean for years.) \u201cI feel like I\u2019m losing a leg.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
Mr. Melvin, 57, the band\u2019s guitarist, acknowledged there was some tension over walking away while the band was still successful. \u201cBut I\u2019m just trying to enjoy it, trying to feel it,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve all gone through it in our own way, but we\u2019ve gone through it together. We\u2019ve got some scars, scar tissue, some sensitivities that can\u2019t be touched anymore, but I can focus on the good stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
NOFX may not be a household name, but to those in the punk world, it\u2019s been the gold standard that\u2019s endured the ebbs and flows of hardcore music. The band\u2019s reputation has rested not only on its songs \u2014 packed with crunchy riffs, breakneck drumming and melodic vocals with classic SoCal harmonies \u2014 but also on how its musicians have handled their careers. As teenagers, the members of the group decided they did not want to work for anyone, and 40 years later they are retiring as punk rock royalty \u2014 and one of the most prominent examples in pop culture of a D.I.Y. ethic taken to extremes.<\/p>\n
Formed in 1983, well before more popular punk bands like Blink-182, Green Day and the Offspring, NOFX has never had a radio hit and refused to join the parade of alternative bands on MTV in the 1990s. The group has been defiant and prolific, producing 15 full-length albums \u2014 one gold record, \u201cPunk in Drublic,\u201d among them \u2014 17 EPs and countless seven-inch records.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
Despite minimal media coverage, the band says it has sold more than seven million records, exclusively releasing them on independent labels, chief among them: Fat Wreck Chords, an imprint co-owned and controlled by Fat Mike.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve always done things ourselves,\u201d Fat Mike said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
While most bands look to attract fans, NOFX spent four decades perfecting the art of something more akin to anarchist self-centered sabotage. Like a show in London in 2000 when Fat Mike, Mr. Melvin and Mr. Abeyta decided to take ecstasy before going onstage. \u201cMelvin is trying to play the accordion and he can\u2019t,\u201d Fat Mike said, laughing. \u201cIt was our biggest show and we took the punk way out. We were all dying laughing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\u201cWho cares?\u201d he added. \u201cWhy NOFX are so good is because we\u2019re having a better time than our fans.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the band\u2019s formative years, NOFX\u2019s defining quality was how bad the group was \u2014 bad musicians and bad singers, with Fat Mike\u2019s distinctive, whiny-sounding lead vocals and Mr. Melvin\u2019s guttural, monotone screams. They were kids with trauma \u2014 abandonment, molestation, addiction \u2014 who found a community that accepted them. In \u201cHepatitis Bathtub,\u201d the band\u2019s unflinching autobiography, you learn about Fat Mike drinking out of a beer bong made from a sex toy, Mr. Sandlin buying his first drum set with drug money and Mr. Abeyta being interrogated by the secret service for a counterfeit cash scheme.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
The early days were defined by blistering, puerile songs, many of which did not have choruses \u2014 a style that remains their trademark. A show promoter, concerned by how poorly they sounded, once paid the band $13 not<\/em> to play.<\/p>\nBut after Fat Mike heard Bad Religion\u2019s seminal punk album, \u201cSuffer,\u201d which was released in 1988, he and the other members of the group decided to \u201cstop sucking.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Mr. Sandlin is not sure Fat Mike\u2019s vocals ever achieved the goal \u2014 \u201cMike\u2019s voice started out horrible. It got mediocre. Now it\u2019s back to horrible.\u201d \u2014 the band slowly got more proficient, starting with the release of \u201cRibbed,\u201d in 1991. That year, the music industry was turned on its head by the release of Nirvana\u2019s \u201cNevermind,\u201d an \u201cextinction-level\u201d event in pop music, according to Fat Mike. Mainstream music took an edgy turn and, within a few years, bands calling themselves punk, including NOFX, found themselves courted by major labels. But Fat Mike \u2014 just<\/em> Fat Mike \u2014 wanted to stay the D.I.Y. course.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n