POP MUSIC REVIEW : NOFX Hasn’t Got the Goods to Back Up Loony Antics

From the independent record label that brought us Offspring comes one more SoCal punk band for the ‘90s: NOFX. So what if the quartet--which mixes Orange County hard-core British power punk and ‘80s ska--is 15 years after-the-fact and often sings with a British inflection. Green Day is selling millions of albums with the same attributes.

The more relevant question is can the band deliver the rehashed style with some kick? Judging from its sold-out show Saturday at the Roxy, the group’s only good for a few short blasts.

Unlike its platinum-selling peers, NOFX has few catchy songs or even hooks to support its loony antics and mix-and-match tempos. That quickly turned Saturday’s show from fun to merely tolerable. A lengthy Louis Armstrong impression by guitarist El Hefe marked the beginning of the end. The music, too, went from tight and fast to sluggish and shapeless. Once the speedy momentum was gone, so was the set.

Maybe “punk” this time around has more to do with the bubble-gum pop of Cheap Trick than the sneer of the Sex Pistols, but NOFX failed to deliver on either level.