This time last year, local Notts heroes George Gadd + The Aftermath gathered their friends for an evening celebrating the music of Weezer, performing their first two albums in full at The Bodega. The evening was such a success, it seems they’re now looking to make their end of November covers night an annual tradition. This year’s edition saw them join forces with Weird Elements and Los Fatso Libres for a Saturday night of pop punk nostalgia, as they played through the greatest hits of The Offspring, Blink-182 and Green Day. Here’s what went down…
First up is Los Fatso Libres who is playing as The Offspring for the evening. Arriving on stage fifteen minutes later than advertised, he’s kitted out in full wrestling attire, wearing a Rey Mysterio-style Lucha Libre mask, a long red cape and an NWO Wolfpac T-Shirt. “This could go one of two ways - the good way or the absolutely s**t way,” he contemplates, as he straps on his acoustic guitar which is his only instrumental backing for the evening. In the end the set turns out to be a bit of both, with a few hiccups caused by forgotten lyrics, guitar strings snapping and Los Fatso’s own off-key vocals.
However, the flawed performance doesn’t matter one bit as the packed crowd are there to have a good time. He smashes through The Offspring’s biggest hits Want You Bad, Why Don’t You Get A Job, The Kids Aren’t Alright and Pretty Fly (For A White Guy), encouraging the crowd to sing with him and winning them over with his charming use of a Kazoo. He finishes the set strong too with crowd-pleasing renditions of Self Esteem and All I Want.
Next up it’s Weird Elements’ turn to perform as legendary pop-punk trio Blink-182, with this one a full band setup. Arriving on stage to the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey, they immediately blast through big-hitters The Rock Show, Josie and Man Overboard. “I guess we should talk about s**t and p**s in between songs like they do,” frontman Will jests, before saying “This next one’s a sad one.”
Fully expecting I Miss You, it’s all a ruse as they instead launch into an expletive-ridden Family Reunion, followed by more crowd-favourites in the form of What’s My Age Again and Carousel. “I want to see a slow-motion circle pit for this one,” Will requests before he and the band play well-known Blink skit, The Country Song. Audience limbs then start to fly during a huge finale consisting of Dammit mixed into TLC’s No Scrubs, as well as big favourites First Date and All The Small Things.
It's then time for George Gadd + The Aftermath to close things out and they kick off their Green Day set by epically smashing through the full ten minutes of Jesus of Suburbia. “I’ve never sang a song longer than three minutes before,” informs George before they get the crowd going with anthemic Dookie-cut, When I Come Around. “What do Green Day say? F**k Bush,” he then jokes, before more old-school Green Day numbers in the form of Brain Stew, She and a particularly colossal Hitchin’ A Ride. “We had one condition for doing this Green Day set and it was that we get to play this song – it’s not a hit but its our favourite,” George explains shortly after a sweet performance of Whatshername.
After downing some shots of The Bodega’s best Bourbon, it’s then time for Boulevard of Broken Dreams which sees a few members of the crowd pull out their lighters and phone torches for the big singalong. George then previews their 2024 plans, saying, “We’ll be doing Busted next year,” before a short rambling story about Charlie Simpson’s iconic eyebrows. It’s then back to business as they get the crowd jumping and singing along to classics Basket Case and American Idiot. The highlight of the night then comes right at the end, as George grabs an acoustic guitar and leads the crowd in a beautiful singalong to Good Riddance (Time of Your Life).
You really couldn’t ask for a better Saturday night gig, with all three local acts doing their legendary, arena-sized counterparts justice and the nostalgia-fuelled crowd playing their part too. With Busted and McFly already pencilled in for the 2024 edition, this covers night looks set to be a staple of the Notts festive gig calendar going forward – and we’re all for it.
George Gadd + The Aftermath performed at The Bodega on 25 November 2023
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