NOFX

I Heard They Suck Live!! (1995)

Ricky Frankel

“So, we book three nights at the Roxy in Hollywood for a live album. The first night we get totally wasted. It was hella fun. We listen to the tape the next day. It sucks hard. Total disaster. The next night we get a little drunk and it turned out the best. We used some of the jokes from each night, but the music was pretty much all from the second night. Alright, this is getting totally boring. This came out on Fat. That's all.” - Nofxofficialwebsite.com

It’s hard to imagine any other band other than NOFX titling and describing their first live album in such a self-deprecating way like that. I believe however, that they are being modest to say the least.

There is no debating that NOFX is one of most important punk bands, but even more so during the ‘90s Epi-Fat era. They have influenced many contemporary melodic hardcore and pop-punk bands that we all enjoy today. To give this album some chronological context I Heard They Suck Live!! was released smack-dab in the middle of that decade. It was released on August 22, 1995 just about a year after their amazing album Punk In Drublic came out.

Because this is a live album its influence maybe different compared to the other classic punk albums that came in 1995. Between songs Fat Mike and the others band members crack jokes at the audience and crack self-deprecating jokes to show that they aren’t trying to be “rock stars.” They are there to play some jams, put on a an awesome show for audience and to have fun as well.

But when they kick into a song its all but jokes. They don’t mess around when it comes to performing live. They pretty much kill every song on the set list. Keep in mind today the band has easily doubled the amount of sounds in their catalog to play live so quite of few songs are from their very early days as a band such as “Six Pack Girls” and songs off Liberal Animation. If you go to a NOFX show today, chances are that you will not hear those songs.

The set list NOFX plays on I Heard They Suck Live!! is pretty remarkable because it spans a wide array of songs from their discography at that time. They play at least one song from every full length they had released up until that point. There is “Beer Bong” from 1988’s Liberal Animation, “Life O’Reilly” from 1989’s S&M Airlines, “The Moron Brothers” from 1991’s Ribbed, “Soul Doubt” from 1992’s White Trash, Two Heebs and a Bean and “Linoleum” from 1994’s Punk In Drublic.

I Heard They Suck Live!! is a time capsule, a look into the past at what a mid-'90s NOFX show was like. Not only did the songs on this album influence newer bands, but also the fact that it is a live album showed (then) future punk bands how to have fun on stage and still put on a great show. For NOFX fans, who may or may not be in bands now, I Heard They Suck Live!! also gives them a look into how the band has progressed since its recording and how they played some of the songs they don’t usually play any more.

This album also gets an extra thumbs up from me because it was recorded during their shows at The Roxy in West Hollywood, CA, which is my favorite venue ever.

Let’s head on back to 1995 and see NOFX play > “The Brews” live!