Camp Anarchy 2019 Closes out the Weekend with the Return of NOFX!

Day 3 has arrived at Camp Anarchy and despite a small brief overnight thunderstorm; it has not deterred campers at all. Today is the day many fans have been waiting for. With NOFX headlining who can blame them!

Starting the day was the Los Angeles punk band Spanish Love Songs, who brought their blend of melodic and sing along style punk to early morning crowd to get things off and running for the final day of the festival.

One aspect of festivals I really do enjoy other than comradery, lots of fans having fun and meeting other fellow photographers is getting to see bands who put on incredible performances. Let me introduce to you to the Bombpops! Hailing from San Diego, CA the Bombpops have been bringing high energy and snarky punk rock to the masses since 2007. It was my first time seeing them live and I have to say they did not disappoint at all! The Bombpops consisting of Poli Van Dam, Jen Razavi, Neil Wayne and Josh Lewis played a high spirited and fast-paced set consisting of noteworthy tunes like “Outta Hand,” “Marry.Fuck. Kill,” and crowd favorite “Dear Beer.”

With there being so many memorable performances it’s tough to sum it all up. Iron Chic and the Bronx delivered great sets. TSOL and Less Than Jake kept the energy and crowd moving and singing along. Bad Religion played an incredible hour and half set including playing their No Control album in its entirety. Talk about amazing! Just ask Fat Mike who got booted off stage by lead singer Greg Graffin. It was inspiring to see Bad Religion play again. I was happy to hear them play some of my favorite tunes including, “Fuck You,” “21^st Century (Digital Boy),” and “Sorrow.”

After two incredible days of sun, good food and punk rock, the moment has finally arrived, the festival’s headliner is getting ready to take the stage to close out the weekend. That is right NOFX has returned with their first US performance in over year!

You can feel the excitement and energy build in the crowd as the stage is getting set up. It was not long before you can see a crowd building up in front of the stage. The intro spills out over the PA system. It is “Time Warp” from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. One by one members Fat Mike, Eric Melvin, El Hefe and Smelly make their way through the crowd onto the stage and start dancing along to the “Time Warp.” After a brief speech by Fat Mike, they get right to it leading off with “60%” and then right into “Dinosaurs Will Die.” A great start to their set! The crowd was an explosion of body surfers, circle pits, dancing and singing along.

The band was is good spirits, between songs they picked on each other and threw drumsticks and water bottles at each other. They played an epic 24-song set including “Murder The Government,” “Six Years On Dope,” “Bob,” “The Separation of Church and Skate” and “Linoleum.” In my opinion, it was a triumphant return to the US for NOFX. They proved once again that despite some criticism, they could come back stronger, crazier and play an incredible set of hard hitting, cynical and snarky punk rock. They did not show any signs of slowing down. I certainly hope they will return next year to Camp Anarchy. If you have not seen them yet, I encourage you to do so because it is a show you will not forget!