NOFX “Final Tour”
Here’s a multiple-choice question that has spurred T-shirt sales as punk-rock approaches its 50th anniversary:
Old punks don’t die, they just — take your pick —
1. Stay away from the mosh pit;
2. Stand in the back;
3. Cash in’
4. Cash out;
5. Do spoken-word performances.
All kidding aside, retirement is looming for SoCal punk veterans NOFX.
The Los Angeles-bred band is marking its 40th anniversary with a 2023 farewell tour that includes a performance this weekend at San Diego’s Waterfront Park.
The band’s singer, “Fat Mike” Burkett announced the tour last fall, but did not give a reason. In a January press release, he vowed there will be no reunion tours.
“These are the very last shows NOFX will ever be playing,” he said. “We are gonna play with all our hearts … With all our joy … And then we are done. We are done done.”
Make that “done done” with a caveat.
In December, NOFX guitarist Eric Melvin told an interviewer: “(Mike) still wants to record and release records as NOFX. So we’ll see how that works because they kind of go hand-in-hand (with touring), but they don’t have to.”
Either way, NOFX promises to perform 40 songs at each of its 40 farewell concerts this year. The repertoire will most likely include such band favorites as “Linoleum,” “I Love You More Than I Hate Me,” “Dinosaurs Will Die” and “It’s My Job to Keep Punk Rock Elite.”
How elite?
The top ticket option for the concert — the “Bro Package” — is priced at $500, plus service fees. It includes a spot on the stage to watch the show, a photo op with NOFX — and all the irony you are able to consume.
The eight-act lineup for Saturday’s 21-and-up concert and beer festival here will also include such veteran punk bands as the now-46-year-old Descedents, the 40-year-old Vandals and the comparatively new Mad Caddies, which was formed in 1995.
3 p.m. Saturday. Waterfront Park, 1600 Pacific Highway. $59 (general admission), $199 (VIP tickets), $500 (“Bro Package”), plus service fees. Must be 21 or older to attend. punkindrublicfest.com/san-diego-ca-2023
Latin-music superstar Ricardo Arjona will perform Friday at Pechanga Arena San Diego with his band. He shown here at 1 May 2022 Los Angeles tour stop.
(Raul Roa)
Ricardo Arjona
One of the most popular artists in the Latin-music world, Guatemala’s Ricardo Arjona, is the only Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter I know of who played on his country’s national basketball team and worked as a school teacher before devoting himself to music.
Drawing from pop, rock and a slew of Latin styles, Arjona’s music fares best by staying firmly in the middle of the road. If it’s aural surprises you crave, he may not be an ideal choice, on record or at his Friday concert at Pechanga Arena San Diego.
But what makes this 59-year-old troubadour stand out are his best lyrics.
One of my favorites is: Love always starts out dreaming and ends in insomnia (from his 2011 song, “El Amor.”)
Another is: Let me discover / What is behind those silver threads /And that abdominal fat / That aerobics cannot remove (from his 1994 song “Lady of Four Decades”).
Arjona also makes some pointed social and political commentary in “If the North Was the South” and “Mojado” (which translates as “Wetback”). The latter is an impassioned ode to undocumented workers seeking a better life in the United States.
For his 2006 video for “Mojado,” Arjona was filmed on the Tijuana beach at the dividing line between Mexico and the U.S., with the metallic border wall as a striking backdrop. Arjona teamed up on the song, which he wrote in 2003, with the Texas-based norteno band Intocable. Two decades later, its message — sadly — sounds even more timely.
8 p.m. Friday. Pechanga Arena, 3500 Sports Arena Blvd., Midway District. $55.99-$295.99, plus service fees. pechangaarenasd.com
Singer Niki Haris will perform Friday in Escondido. She is shown here on stage at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.
(Leon Morris / Redferns via Getty Images)
Jazz at the Ballroom presents “Get Out of Town”
An international lineup of jazz artists will pay tribute Saturday to classics from the Great American Songbook at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido.
The lineup includes Australian singer Olivia Chindamo, Polish pianist Konrad Paszkudzki, Australian tenor saxophonist Adrian Cunningham and — a likely highlight — Michigan-born singer Niki Haris.
The daughter of the late jazz piano stalwart Gene Harris, Haris is a versatile vocalist who counts everyone from Brother Jack McDuff and Santana to Snap! and Madonna among her former collaborators.
8 p.m. Saturday. California Center for the Arts, Escondido, 340 N. Escondido Blvd., Escondido. $25-$35. (800) 988-4253; artcenter.org