Leave it to Fat Mike to curate the world's first museum dedicated to punk rock. As SPIN reports, the NOFX frontman originally had the idea for a punk rock store that would also display rare genre artifacts from his personal collection. The idea blossomed into the 12,000-square-foot Punk Rock Museum, which is not only the first of its kind to exhaustively document the genre, but also the first to welcome bands of any size, not just superstars.
Fat Mike's criteria is pretty straightforward: “If you’re a punk band, you’re f**king in. It’s that simple.”
“We want people to come from Indonesia and see the flier of their band on the wall,” he adds. “You know how proud they would feel? I want anyone in a punk band around the world to have that opportunity.”
"The Punk Rock Museum houses the world's most expansive, inclusive, and intimate display of artifacts, fliers, photos, clothing, instruments, handwritten lyrics, artwork, and just about everything else donated by the people and bands who were there. Here’s a small taste of what the museum will have on display," the Punk Rock Museum's website reads. "Not only can you see amazing artifacts, there’s a guitar room where you can play the actual guitars and basses played through the amps the artists played them through. We have guitars and amps from Rise Against, NOFX, Pennywise, Sick of it All, Strung Out, and many more. Yes… you can actually PLAY THEM. A lot of people ask, 'what happens if something gets broken?' The simple answer, we fix it - just like we did on tour."
The Punk Rock Museum is located in Las Vegas and is slated to open on January 13, 2023.