We have an oft-repeated complaint about unwilling dancers: it’s all in your head. It’s clear people don’t dance at shows have never given it a serious chance. Or they haven’t been forced to. That’s where !!! (pronounced chk chk chk) comes in, with silky beats and drum circle percussion; where frontman Nic Offer grinds against you like some creepy, beautiful stranger.
Releasing the seminal dance-punk single “Me and Giuliani Down by the School Yard” in 2003, the 9-piece followed with Louden Up Now, one of the best albums of 2004. It’s exploration and surprising hooks made for both a headphone and dancefloor masterpiece.
Aside from the posi lyrics, what sells !!! vocally is the showmanship of Nic Offer, the dedicated frontman I had the pleasure of seeing at an Out Hud show about a year ago. At that show, he chatted incessantly about parties at Princes’ house, suggested fornicating with his newly married bass player and danced frenetically against the wall when the spirit overcame him. This energy is only surpassed by his precision and intimacy with an audience, skills forged in his Sacramento house party days. There is something very big-top ringleader about !!!’s brand of chaos and the way Offer controls it. !!!’s intense live show would be impossible or at least much more abrasive without those reins.
