Album Review: NoFX - 'Backstage Passport (DVD)'

If you’re reading this then there’s a good chance you’ve at least heard about the (now) infamous Backstage Passport series, featuring everyone’s favourite (or most hated) long-serving punks, NoFX. If you haven’t, allow me to summarize the concept for you.

NoFX have been in the game for more than twenty years and now feel that punk rock is no longer dangerous, an understandable attitude when you consider that Mike, Hefe, Melvin and Smelly have hit every one of the world’s more traditional tour stops multiple times during their tenure. So, rather than sitting at home and enjoying the fruits of their labor, the troublesome four-piece decided to embark on a trek that would take in such wonderful, rock n roll loving locations like Ecuador and Israel. The result? A series of run ins with the law, close encounters with crazed fans and an eye opening view of just how far reaching this band’s music really is.

For a group that has clocked up some serious miles in their time, it was amazing to see just how naïve El Hefe was to some of the cultural differences that exist between the audience and himself. Case in point: the junk food loving guitarist wearing a towel on his head in a country with a large Muslim population and then looking surprised when a particularly vocal member of the crowd was offended by the guitarist’s actions (makes for good TV though).

Summarizing the entire series would be a tad silly, as you (yes you, out there in internet land) wouldn’t need to go and buy this smashing release, however you should know that across the eight episodes you will see a drunken (yet strangely productive) band manager in full effect, a near right riot between the NoFX road crew and a hostile middle-eastern crowd, and of course, some awesome live footage. Couple that with the fact that you’ll witness a spontaneous acoustic set from Mike plus you get a bonus disc with two-hours of tomfoolery, and I think you’d have to agree that this is one of the better band DVD’s that have come our way in a very long time.

Fans of NoFX are obviously going to love this, but Backstage Passport’s real charm lies in the fact that it’s still a genuinely enjoyable show for people that live outside of the punk rock world. For a band that has reached legendary status to be humanized in such a personal way is something that I urge everyone to check out at least once.

Disc 1) All 8 Episodes of the “Backstage Passport” TV Series

Disc 2) 2 hour of bonus footage