Gig review: NOFX at Temple Newsam, Leeds

"Hey, this isn't disappointing yet!" NOFX frontman Fat Mike quips half-an-hour into his band's show in Leeds. Crammed into a big top on the sloping grounds of the city's Temple Newsam estate, the singer – a riotous bouquet of colours, from acid-blue hair to red velvet dress – then wryly grins at several thousand fans. "But I bet it soon will be!"

This West Yorkshire date not only kicks off May's final Bank Holiday weekend but also marks the first British stop of the band's long goodbye. Forty years on from their formation, the SoCal punk stalwarts are calling time on their career, at the end of a curated, mini-festival farewell trek that unfolds into 2024.

It is an influential loss, reflected in a who's-who support bill lined up alongside them. NOFX's lasting impact upon the wider punk palate is readily apparent, from ska favourites Less Than Jake to fellow skate-hardcore veterans Lagwagon. They all share the stage with Slam Dunk Festival, due to take over Temple Newsam on Sunday; for many, this is the bittersweet hors d'oeuvre to their weekend.

This final tour has been marketed with a particular conceit, promising 40 songs per night, with two albums in full at each show. At Leeds, they have opted for 1994's seminal Punk in Drublic and 2006's Wolves in Wolves' Clothing. Neither feat strictly pans out, but there are few who will feel shortchanged amid what amounts to a frenetic late-spring sweat-out.

A famously chequered stage reputation has dogged NOFX for much of their career – the title of their record I Heard They Suck Live!! is tongue-in-cheek only to a point – but it appears they have put the hours in beforehand. The pugilistic bent of Leave It Alone and USA-holes still feel like turbo-tousled throwaways, but that slapdash kineticism works superbly elsewhere, with dark ditties The Man I Killed and Linoleum both rampantly effective.

For the best part of two hours, the group thrash out songs in typically irreverent fashion, tempered by the self-acutalisation of their limited time. Fat Mike is adamant they will not dig themselves out of a self-imposed tombstone, a la Mötley Crüe. As night falls, to the sounds of a defiant Leaving Jesusland, NOFX certainly look determined to ensure there's nothing left for an unlikely resurrection; at the close, when they all hug together, there might even be an uncharacteristic tear in their eyes.