Recently, we dug into some crazy onstage meltdowns that have taken place from some of our favourite indie artists in the last three years. While it was all meant in good fun, NOFX frontman Fat Mike read the list and felt the need to clarify what really went down at his infamous Cokie the Clown performance at SXSW in 2010.
The show saw Fat Mike take over Emo's in Austin on March 20, 2010, where he proceeded to give one of the strangest performances in recent memory. Opening up with some truly upsetting stories about his life, he then seemingly tricked the audience into drinking his own urine, a fact he later revealed as a hoax after the Austin Health Department got involved.
Speaking with Exclaim!, Fat Mike explains that the whole thing was far from a hoax. "Just so your readers know, I had that planned for a month, and I did do a secret performance of that a few days before that," he says. "I played in front of seven people in San Francisco. So I knew exactly what I was doing. There was no meltdown. It was pure performance. That's what I was doing."
With that in mind, it's important to note that the stories he shared were all totally true. "I was just thinking about it and I decided I didn't want to just play acoustic songs, I wanted to do something memorable. So I went up there and told the most horrific stories of my life. They weren't all the most horrific, some of them were kind of funny. But I told some of the most horrific and some shocking stories. But they're all true."
Fat Mike also had some words to share about Screeching Weasel's onstage disaster a year later at SXSW, which saw frontman Ben Weasel lose his cool and attack a female audience member. "I don't think it's horrible because he punched a girl. I think it's horrible because he punched someone who's smaller and weaker than him," Fat Mike explains. "If he punched a 6'5" girl, I wouldn't have a problem with it. If he punched a 6'5" fucking wrestler girl, it's still not cool, but you know. I heard earlier in the night he called her a whore and then she started throwing ice at him. So he was just being kind of a dick the whole night."
Since Screeching Weasel are signed to Fat Wreck Chords, Fat Mike has had to answer to what happened ever since then. "It's funny, that guy from the Queers said, 'How come you don't back your friends?' But I haven't talked to that fucking guy in ten years! He told Fat Wreck Chords, when we had to do a deal, he said, 'I'd like all business matters to be run through my manager.' So it's pretty clear he doesn't want to talk to us, why should we talk to him."
As recently reported, NOFX fans can get set for the upcoming Thalidomide Child EP, which contains the group's first-ever recordings from 1984, as well as their long-in-the-works hardcore covers seven-inch. Plus, the band are in the midst of a cross-Canada tour. All the remaining dates are below.
Tour dates:
6/23 London, ON - The Music Hall *
6/24 Toronto, ON - The Kool Haus *
6/25 Toronto, ON - The Kool Haus *
6/27 Winnipeg, MB - The Burton Cummings Theatre *
6/29 Edmonton, AB - The Edmonton Events Centre *
6/30 Calgary, AB - The Mac Ewan Hall *
7/1 Vancouver, BC - The Commodore *
7/2 Vancouver, BC - The Commodore *
8/12 Puttlingen, Germany - Rocko del Schlacko Festival
8/13 Rothenburg o.d. Tauber, Germany - Taubertal Festival
* with Teenage Bottlerocket
The show saw Fat Mike take over Emo's in Austin on March 20, 2010, where he proceeded to give one of the strangest performances in recent memory. Opening up with some truly upsetting stories about his life, he then seemingly tricked the audience into drinking his own urine, a fact he later revealed as a hoax after the Austin Health Department got involved.
Speaking with Exclaim!, Fat Mike explains that the whole thing was far from a hoax. "Just so your readers know, I had that planned for a month, and I did do a secret performance of that a few days before that," he says. "I played in front of seven people in San Francisco. So I knew exactly what I was doing. There was no meltdown. It was pure performance. That's what I was doing."
With that in mind, it's important to note that the stories he shared were all totally true. "I was just thinking about it and I decided I didn't want to just play acoustic songs, I wanted to do something memorable. So I went up there and told the most horrific stories of my life. They weren't all the most horrific, some of them were kind of funny. But I told some of the most horrific and some shocking stories. But they're all true."
Fat Mike also had some words to share about Screeching Weasel's onstage disaster a year later at SXSW, which saw frontman Ben Weasel lose his cool and attack a female audience member. "I don't think it's horrible because he punched a girl. I think it's horrible because he punched someone who's smaller and weaker than him," Fat Mike explains. "If he punched a 6'5" girl, I wouldn't have a problem with it. If he punched a 6'5" fucking wrestler girl, it's still not cool, but you know. I heard earlier in the night he called her a whore and then she started throwing ice at him. So he was just being kind of a dick the whole night."
Since Screeching Weasel are signed to Fat Wreck Chords, Fat Mike has had to answer to what happened ever since then. "It's funny, that guy from the Queers said, 'How come you don't back your friends?' But I haven't talked to that fucking guy in ten years! He told Fat Wreck Chords, when we had to do a deal, he said, 'I'd like all business matters to be run through my manager.' So it's pretty clear he doesn't want to talk to us, why should we talk to him."
As recently reported, NOFX fans can get set for the upcoming Thalidomide Child EP, which contains the group's first-ever recordings from 1984, as well as their long-in-the-works hardcore covers seven-inch. Plus, the band are in the midst of a cross-Canada tour. All the remaining dates are below.
Tour dates:
6/23 London, ON - The Music Hall *
6/24 Toronto, ON - The Kool Haus *
6/25 Toronto, ON - The Kool Haus *
6/27 Winnipeg, MB - The Burton Cummings Theatre *
6/29 Edmonton, AB - The Edmonton Events Centre *
6/30 Calgary, AB - The Mac Ewan Hall *
7/1 Vancouver, BC - The Commodore *
7/2 Vancouver, BC - The Commodore *
8/12 Puttlingen, Germany - Rocko del Schlacko Festival
8/13 Rothenburg o.d. Tauber, Germany - Taubertal Festival
* with Teenage Bottlerocket
