NOFX

Friday · Madison Theater

For all those who think that Punk bands are destined to flame up hot and burn out fast, please direct your attention to San Francisco's NOFX, who have been playing hard, fast and smart for the past quarter-century. The band originally formed in Los Angeles in 1983 as a trio -- vocalist/bassist Mike Burkett (aka Fat Mike), guitarist Eric Melvin and drummer Erik Sandin. After a Spinal Tap-like succession of drummers, the trio expanded to a quartet with the addition of a second guitarist position, which was permanently filled by Aaron Abeyta (loved by all as El Hefe) in 1991. By then, Sandin had rejoined and the lineup has remained in place ever since.

An intelligent, socially conscious band, NOFX has taken on every conceivable subject, from music censorship (The P.M.R.C. Can Suck on This! EP) to the very erosion of civilization (their 18-minute opus, "The Decline") to the current political muckpit (2003's War on Errorism). Fat Mike galvanized the Punk community by launching the punkvoter.com Web site in 2000 and organizing the Rock Against Bush tour in 2004, raising awareness of those under voting age and motivating unregistered voters to get involved.

Fat Mike also paid forward his gratitude to the Punk scene by forming Fat Wreck Chords in 2000, which, beyond being a home for NOFX, has signed and nurtured dozens of some of the top Punk bands going. As an independent band, NOFX has released 10 studio albums, a couple of live discs (including last year's They've Actually Gotten Worse Live!), more than a dozen EPs and piles of singles, resulting in staggering unit sales of over 6 million. But the band's greatest contribution might well be their militant social attitude and their insistence on educating and mobilizing their audience. NOFX is among the first to realize that Punk isn't just a sound, it's a potent agent for positive change. (Brian Baker)

California Guitar Trio

Saturday · Seton Performance Hall

A little more than 20 years ago, King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp convened one of his renowned Guitar Craft Course sessions in England, which serendipitously assembled three international six-stringers from far-flung corners of the globe. Paul Richards from Salt Lake City, Bert Lams from Brussels and Hideyo Moriya from Tokyo graduated from Fripp's classes to positions with his acclaimed League of Crafty Guitarists. But once Fripp decommissioned the League, Richards, Lams and Moriya found their chemistry too compelling to abandon. In 1991, the three reunited in Los Angeles and founded the California Guitar Trio, embarking on what has become an amazing 17-year musical exploration.

CGT has amassed a loyal audience that cuts across genre lines, converting Prog, Jazz and Classical listeners into Trio fans. The band's edgy combination of Bluegrass, Surf, Jazz, Classical, Rock and World music includes serious cover choices (Bach's "Toccata and Fugue" and Beethoven's 5th Symphony) as well more whimsical fare (2004's "Ghost Riders on the Storm," an imaginative blending of the well-worn cowboy song and the Doors classic), and they've been hailed by critics as one of the most original instrumental groups of the modern era.

CGT has made serious fans among their peer group, sharing stages with Fripp and King Crimson, master guitarists John McLaughlin, John Scofield and Adrian Legg, Blues legend Taj Mahal and keyboard great Rick Wakeman, among many others. The band's evocative music has been a featured part of Olympic television coverage for the past decade, not to mention being the wake-up music of choice for the space shuttle Endeavor.

Two decades after their fortuitous meeting in one of the world's most strenuous guitar camps, the eclectic talent, taste and humor of the California Guitar Trio continues to shine in studios and on stages around the planet. (BB)

Easy Action with White Girls

Monday · The Gypsy Hut

Stand on the edge. Find your comfort, enjoy the view, appreciate the breeze. Take pleasure in optimistic thoughts of a bright future.

Next thing you know, you're pushed. Sent over the edge. You scream and flail your arms. You do all the motions but it's all ignored. One moment everything is good. The next moment you realize, might be your last. Savor this moment.

As you fall, you reach out and find a root sticking out of the side of the cliff. That's it! Grab it! Fight, you fucker! You clutch it with one hand and dangle there. Your fall is stopped, if only temporarily by this small root and it looks as if your weight is gonna pull it out of the ground and your fall will continue at any moment.

It's already starting to give. Still enjoying that comfortable breeze and view? Savor this moment.

This is how I felt when I first saw Easy Action. Uneasy. I felt every bit of danger that life had to offer backed by a chorus of deafening screams, flailing guitars and bone-pulverizing beats that made me feel like maybe I should take myself and all my expensive cameras somewhere more toward the back of the room. But I didn't! I stayed up front and raised a fist in the air. My camera survived. I survived and have never been the same. Neither has my definition of what Rock and/or Roll is or can be.

Easy Action is still cramming its 2005 Friends of Rock and Roll CD down everyone's throat and that's OK! We, the adoring feeble-minded public, will take what we get. We will watch when we can and we will still feel that uneasiness from the first note to the last. Remember, as singer John Brannon sez -- they're JAMS not songs!

And I still call 'em Jams. (Shawn Abnoxious)