No Use For A Name
Live in a Dive
Fat
This CD can pretty much be summed up entirely by the opening banter from some announcer guy, standing in front of a large audience, introducing No Use For A Name:
“How the hell are you guys doin’?” Note gravelly, “I’ve smoked too many cigarettes” voice. Crowd cheers, a couple of “fuck yeahs” can be heard in the distance.
“…I want to let you guys know something right now… tonight, this next performance is gonna be live.” Crowd roars, bassist can be heard tuning in the background.
“That’s right, right here, right now… it’s a day to fuckin’ remember… you guys about ready?” Note return of gravelly voice, which was absent for the prior 15 seconds or so. Crowd roars with approval.
“I’d like to introduce to you, tonight, No Use For A Fuckin’ Name!” Crowd goes wild, band breaks into “Invincible.”
Well, I must admit that I never knew the band’s name included the adjective “fuckin’,” but I stand corrected. It also seemed strange that a man facing a crowd of hundreds with a band behind him tuning up should inform the crowd that “the next performance is gonna be live.” Now, I’m not a big No Use For A Name fan, but I do know that they’ve never been accused of lip-syncing. Weird…
Anyway, the musical content was just about as idiotic as the introduction, so I guess the marriage works. NUFAN rip and rock through 19 tracks of Bad Religion and NOFX rip-off fun, completely devoid of even a hint of originality. It’s thoroughly amazing that NUFAN has such a huge following, given that they lack any sincerity or creativity whatsoever, but hey! Sum 41 and Blink-182 got huge on the ideas and hard work of others, so why shouldn’t NUFAN?
In their defense, NUFAN do sound pretty friggin’ tight as a live band, and their songs are relatively singable. I think I’m too old to get into this type of pointless fast “punk” stuff from California. Didn’t Bad Religion pretty much perfect this genre like 19 years ago? Why do these bands even bother?
Fat Wreck Chords: http://www.fatwreck.net
