Show Review: !!! @ The Mohawk (5/25)

Dance party…

The rain, ever looming, ever threatening avoided unleashing a drenching flood on The Mohawk last Saturday. To make up for it, !!! front man Nic Offer did his best work to make it rain, rain sweat. Twerk. Put it in. There was flailing and gyrating and a few trips into the crowd to spread the love. Meanwhile, the stage was full of music to back him as the dance punk disco pros put down the thick funk at the perfect BPM.

Shockwave Riderz opened with Learning Secrets DJ sets filling the gaps with the hits you should know. Pics and a few more words after the break…

Learning Secrets was repped by Jeramy this evening as Ian was spinning elsewhere. It’s cool. 1/2 of a great team is still great in this case. Dance hits. Hits. All of the hits.

Shockwave Riderz was an unknown going in, and unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll be investing anytime after. The three piece consisting of Phil Boyd (drums/vocals), Sara Mac (vocals,efx) and Paul Quattrone (synth pads/efx) put energy into their performance. Paul is on double duty; he is !!!’s drummer. Getting an opener for two-thirds the space is a bonus. But yeah, inevitably, I was left thinking of many of their songs as Kills B-sides. Potential is there.

I had been warned by the !!! fans I know that Nic likes to get up in your business and grind away on your lens. This is true. From the first notes of !!!’s set, Nic was at the edge of the stage, dancing like a straight-armed maniac. More importantly, the band was putting in their work to make the effort from Nic worthwhile. Live drums blended with the synths, basslines jumping from driving jams to pure disco funky, sweat-covered guitar to jangle the and make people play air guitar. The crowd danced and lived in the moment with !!!.

One cool element was Sonia Moore joining the band on stage to put down her vocals recorded for Thr!!!er here in Austin under Jim Eno‘s watchful ear and then sticking around for a few of the hits. She fed off the crowd’s energy and looked like she had been on the stage at the Mohawk a thousand times as a member of !!!.

Nic finished the encore by wringing his shirt out and drinking it, yech. Maybe the rain didn’t want to prevent that moment from happening. …now, take a shower.

More pics at the photo site…