No matter what you think of their later albums, their documentaries or their post-disbanding activities; you can’t deny or even overestimate the influence of NOFX (and Fat Wreck Chords) on the punk rock scene of the 90s and after. We had played with NOFX at 013 in Tilburg in August of 2013 and experienced the madness of Fat Mike backstage. NOFX’ tour booker Destiny released some of our albums via their label, so we have good connections with them. When they asked us to play the final Dutch NOFX show we didn’t hesitate and confirmed as fast as we could! NOFX were doing a weekend of final shows in The Netherlands, and even though we played the truly final one on Sunday, the Saturday was the most successful, partly because it sold out well in advance and the Sunday never sold out completely. But our set at the NOFXtival truly became unforgettable because of the weather.
Ketelhuisplein in Eindhoven is a huge square in a former industrial area of Eindhoven and it was turned into a festival site. The stage and square were surrounded by high apartment buildings. I remember setting up our gear on stage and asking if someone had sunblock as I felt my skin burning in the hot sun. What didn’t help was the concrete and apartment windows reflecting the sun, making it feel like there were at least 4 suns shining at us. But hey, when playing an outdoor festival you can’t complain when the sun is out, it could have rained all day long… After setting up we had an hour or so to kill, so we went to the backstage, where our friend Wim Koens worked. He had changed our backstage name tag from Antillectual to AntiNECtual, referring to the Nijmegen based football club NEC, while he is from the competing neighboring city of Arnhem. So the vibe was good, casual, in true NOFX style.
After we killed 45 minutes we went back to the stage and festival site. We already noticed the sun had disappeared and our sunblock didn’t need refreshing to protect us. With every step to the stage, it got darker and darker. When we arrived the whole scenery looked very ominous. Quite some people had already gathered in front of the stage, but we knew from experience that when you open a festival, it takes a couple of minutes before most people start approaching the stage. I stepped on stage, walked towards my guitar and put it around my shoulders. I looked down to plug the cable in my guitar and right when I look up I see a curtain of water raining down in front of us. Over the people in front of the stage, over the festival area, there’s water showers everywhere. This is the worst possible timing. No one will come near the stage when it’s raining, people even move away, back to the seating area where there’s tents to protect them from the rain. I feel miserable, as I know it’s going to be a difficult one. Our friend Tijs van Leur joined us for this show. He is a well experienced photographer who travels the world with bands like The Offspring and Sum 41 to make the most ridiculous arena pictures of tens of thousands of people. He accompanied us to shoot some pictures as we hoped to have a nice crowd that day. As always we give our best to make sure that the people standing in the rain get the show they deserve, and to persuade people to approach the stage. But as the rain increases, that becomes harder and harder.
Thankfully, during the second half of our set the rain stops a little. More and more people join the few committed people at the front of the stage who didn’t leave when the rain started. People come out of the food tents and gather in front of the stage, a nice crowd starts to emerge. Finally Tijs can take some half decent shots and get in the vibe again of playing a show in broad daylight. We have fun, but it never becomes the final NOFX show as we had anticipated. Either way, though, it is memorable!
Pics Tijs van Leur
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