Of all the music DVD’s I’ve ever viewed, my favorite thing to watch was not the live footage of the band playing, but the behind-the-scenes material. Of course, the music is the most important thing, but I’ve always liked that little glimpse into the band members lives; the way they handle the monotony of touring, the funny and sometimes ridiculous banter and the off the wall things that happen before, during and after the show. And Backstage Passport not only includes that, but focuses on it extensively.
Despite the fact that I rarely listen to NOFX anymore, I was extremely interested in getting a glimpse of what goes on in their everyday touring lives; especially when they’re embarking on such a strange tour. The whole synopsis of Backstage Passport is that the boys in NOFX felt the need to leave the safety of the standard U.S. and European tour routes and travel to extremely out of the way locales such as Malaysia, Peru, Singapore and more.
It was amazing to see NOFX walk into a new airport to the rabid screaming of fans; behavior which you usually see associated with boy bands and Nickelback. Even stranger was seeing the boys speaking at press conferences due to the bands reluctance to even conduct interviews in the past. A NOFX show, here in the States is something that we’ve grown accustomed to; in these out of the way countries, it seems to be a huge media event.
As the tour progresses, things continually go from bad to worse to hilarious, with the band and crew never really seeming to mind because of all the fun they’re having and generally just the feeling of being able to play to fans that have never-and probably never will again-catch NOFX live. NOFX and crew are continuously subject to shady promoters ripping them off and near riots on top of the usual touring pitfalls, but they take it all in stride with the tours “Be nice” attitude.
I didn’t catch any of Backstage Passport when it originally aired on Fuse but after receiving this in the mail, I spent all day watching the whole of the video and extra footage after getting my wisdom teeth extracted. This video is funny enough on its own, but the Vicodin and remnants of anesthesia didn’t really hurt either. Whether you’re a longtime or newer fan of NOFX…or even if you’re not a fan at all, you’ll probably get a kick out of this.
