This album is a great departure for NOFX from the studio scene. You get 15 rockin NOFX songs (it would be 16 but "Buggley Eyes" can hardly be considered rockin) as well as a half-assed cover of "Nothing But a Nightmare" by some band I've never heard of called Rudimentary Peni (yes, old-school fans, I know I'm uncultured, so don't bother mentioning it).

This album was released right after Punk in Drublic, so, alas, there are only three songs from NOFX's best full-length on this one -- "Linoleum," "The Brews," and "Punk Guy" (good choices). Other favorites like "Bob" and "Kill all the White Man" made their way on to this one, and there's even some really old stuff like "Beer Bong" and "Six Pack Girls."

For a live album -- especially a live punk album -- the band sounds great. Fat Mike's vocals are on target the whole way through (and anyone who has been to a NOFX show where Fat Mike was having an off night knows how difficult it can be to hear your favorite songs getting butchered...that doesn't happen here). The harmonies are awesome, and Hefe's trumpet and guitar solos are usually very tight. In addition, the recording quality is very solid. Both the vocals and all of the instruments sound good. The reason NOFX decided to do this album (according to Fatty's liner notes) is that there were some shitty-sounding bootlegs floating around, "like someone recorded it from inside a garbage can." Ryan Greene recorded this one, so you know it's gonna be good.

Another plus of this album is that it remains fun the whole time. The on-stage banter that occurs at the beginning of the CD and at the end of each song is pretty amusing (although when I saw NOFX two years ago, Hefe was still using the same jokes). All of the NOFX full-lengths from Liberal Animation to Drublic are represented, so there's something for basically all of NOFX's long-term fans. The only not cool thing about this album is Mike's use of the word "fag" in the liner notes. That's a little fucked up. Usually NOFX aren't assholes like that, expecially considering how huge Fat Mike is on lesbians. Someone let me know if I'm reading that wrong. The only other complaint I have about the album is that it doesn't have anything off The Longest Line (one of my favorite albums) besides "Kill All the White Man." Oh well...there's only so much room on an LP.

When I bought this, it was my first NOFX album. Big mistake. It's better to know the songs first, in my opinion. Now that I've heard all the older albums, I have much more appreciation for this one. If you haven't heard much NOFX, check out The Decline or one of the early- to mid-nineties full-lengths for your first taste. Save this one for when you're a little more familiar with the NOFX library.