"I seem sober?" Mike Burkett, lead singer and bassist of San Francisco-based punk band NOFX sarcastically asked fans in response to heckles from the crowd. "I will f--- you in the a--. No, actually I can't get a boner."

Tonight, NOFX fans will be able to converse with the four middle-aged men who continue to pump out songs about sex, politics and inebriated states of being -- something not usually possible at the band's typical large-scale concerts.

The scene in the bar, Thee Parkside, is surreal: sweat drips from the low ceiling and the covered windows are fogged. Scores of fists are raised into the dive bar's dank, stuffy air as the rowdy, middle-aged crowd dances around the small bar, seeming to know every chorus.

Burkett, a.k.a. Fat Mike, is playing at his favorite SF bar tonight, and is doing so as part of the band's 25th anniversary tour. The three-week California tour stopped in SF for five concerts, but tonight's small-scale show proves to be a sort of homage to the band's hometown fans.

"We're really playing this show to gain punk rock credibility," Fat Mike told the audience of 200 before jumping into the two-hour long Valentine's Day set. "Yeah -- credibility!"

And while Fat Mike, 42, enjoys his band's long run and success, he does so with a bachelor's degree in Social Science and a minor in Human Sexuality from SF State.

"School did not help me at all," Fat Mike said. "Probably the best thing I got out of college was pool."

The musician, now living near SF State in the upper-class neighborhood of St. Francis Wood, graduated in 1990 with a 3.0 grade point average, but said that he spent most of his time learning to play pool in the Cesar Chavez Student Center.

He admitted, however, that his completion of political science and human sexuality classes may have helped him lyrically.

"I've written a lot of songs about sex and politics," he said.

Fat Mike doesn't regret his five-and-a-half years spent at SF State in the late 1980s; he believes college made him a more "enriched, well-rounded individual." No one else in NOFX (pronounced NO-F-X) holds a college degree.

"They're all just a bunch of dummies," he said jokingly of his band mates.

NOFX -- named after the disbanded Boston band Negative FX -- formed in 1983 and quickly began touring. It wasn't until 1989 that the band signed to Epitaph Records, the independent record label that would go on to release eight of their albums. The band parted ways with Epitaph in 2003 and released "The War on Errorism" on Fat Mike's own label, Fat Wreck Chords. The band is set to release its 11th, currently untitled studio album this year and played several of the unreleased songs while on residency in San Francisco.

The weeklong string of concerts in SF was the band's first Bay Area performance in early 2007. Fans came from around the world to see the band play in its hometown.

Ran Fareman came from Israel to attend NOFX's set at Slim's on 11th Street in the SOMA district. While visiting California for the first time, he also made a visit to his brother who lives on the Peninsula.

"I can't wait to see them -- they're catchy, funny, political," Fareman, 23, said in excitement, moments before the band took the stage. "This is what I came for."

The Israeli fan cited his obligatory service in the military as his reason for missing the band's 2007 tour of Israel. His favorite song is "The Death of John Smith," which is about societal complacency.

NOFX has sold more than six million records over its 25 years of existence -- a feat its label is proud of, considering the band's longtime upholding of common punk rock ethics: an insistence of remaining on independent record labels and conducting few interviews with mainstream media. The band has gained a large fan base, however, after years of performing on every continent other than Antarctica.

NOFX fans are far and wide. Some are even SF State students.

"It was the first punk band I got in to," said English major Chris Greeley of NOFX. "I was in sixth grade and didn't know any better."

Greeley, 21, has seen the band half a dozen times, but wasn't able to catch any of the 25th anniversary tour gigs. He said he enjoys their unique musical style and that he listens to the band's 1994 album "Punk in Drublic" while doing homework for classes at SF State.

But NOFX won't be doing any homework any time soon.

"School's fun," Fat Mike said of college life. He added that "keggers" were one of his popular college past times.

He also made sure to mention that he met his wife of 16 years at SF State.

Now that he's carved out a career playing music around the world, Fat Mike doesn't foresee sitting through any more lectures or pop quizzes.

"I would never, ever go back to school," he said. "Can you believe that homework stuff?"