!!!

I almost didn’t make it to this show. The men in my family are notorious for their balky backs, and surely enough, a lower back muscle of mine went completely haywire that morning on my walk to the subway. Surely a late evening of furious dancing to an octet known for bass grooves would not be in the cards. But thirteen hours, nine Advils, and a couple of beers later, catching !!! at the Bowery Ballroom again started to seem like a good idea. So there I was. I needed to crawl on all fours to the shower the next morning, but it was worth it.

My party arrived a bit too late to catch questionably named openers Holy Fuck, but we simply weren’t in the state of mind required to stand through opening bands, especially because !!! wasn’t set to hit the stage until 11, which is more than a little brutal for a weeknight gig. A mere five minutes after the scheduled set time, eight ordinary looking dudes ambled out onto the stage and immediately slammed into a bass-heavy (which seems redundant to mention, but it was TURNED UP) take on the opening title track from the recent Myth Takes. This was quickly followed by “All My Heroes Are Weirdos”, the second song on said album, and catch me secretly hoping that they would follow with “Must Be the Moon” and play the record front to back in order, if only because Myth Takes is a practically dud-free album that features some of the best sequencing you’ll hear all year. But such visions were dashed by Louden Up Now’s expletive laden “Pardon My Freedom,” a highly enjoyable track nevertheless.

It’s funny how the viewing the spectacle of eight men furiously grooving in tandem can make a person forget that just ten hours ago he felt like someone was sticking a hot knife into his lower back, and at that point I felt a bit sheepish for telling my friends I was going to be a no show. But even if an audience member at a !!! gig wanted to stand completely still, de facto frontman Nic Offer wasn’t about to permit that. The man is a perpetual motion machine, making up crazy dance moves on the spot while shouting his vocals atop the stage monitors and compelling the audience to shake a leg. In the words of my girlfriend, “I’m completely into this show because he obviously is.” A second, more melodic lead vocalist with a bright orange shirt and John Holmes facial hair also got in on the action, shaking percussion and singing on “New Name” and “Yadnus”. But Offer remains his band’s soul, if not its heart, which would undeniably be the role of the bass player by default; I wouldn’t be surprised if the bassist and guitarist are afforded a slightly larger share of the pot when its time to divvy up the evening’s earnings. Still, no member of !!! gets left out, if only because each gets to play some form of percussion at least once. They even trotted out hype woman Shannon Funchess for some backing vocals, freaky dancing, and her “Talkin’ bout reeeeal love baaaaay-beh!” lead part on the thunderous disco of Myth Takes’s “Heart of Hearts.”

The band played nearly all of Myth Takes, passed on “Guliani,” and ended with what I seem to recall was a spirited take on “Intensify” before leaving the stage just after the stroke of midnight. One hour, no stops, no encore, none necessary.