Quarterlifeparty

Holy Fuck! And I’m not talking about the opening band (although they were excellent as well). !!! puts on an incredible high energy show that is hard to put into words. So, I have instead put together a list of analogies of situation that possibly could compare to how great of a show it was last night:

1. You are having the best sex of your life with your favorite celebrity (let’s just say Jessica Alba for example), but then you realize you are dreaming. You wake up from your dream and are really disappointed, but then you open your eyes and you are actually having crazy sex with Jessica Alba! Afterwards you go to use the bathroom and you poop a bar of gold.

2. You are on your way to work listening to some crappy poppy radio station when all of a sudden a tunnel opens up to another dimension where instead of driving a car you are riding a Pegasus through cotton candy clouds as you are deluged with a rain of marshmallows. Your Pegasus lands you on a magical island where everyone is in a constant state of dancing. And then you poop a bar of gold.

3. You are trying out skydiving for the first time and are incredibly nervous. You jump, and you go to pull your rip-chord and nothing happens. As you are falling to your death you meet the man/woman of your dreams so you both get naked and have sex while falling (which allows you to get into some amazing positions), at the same time Wolfgang Puck’s personal jet flying above accidentally drops a perfectly cooked plate of surf and turf that turns out to be the best meal you have ever eaten. But then… your Pegasus from the story before flies in to save you and takes you back to magical dance island. And then you poop a bar of gold.

So, these are pretty outrageous, right? But so was the !!! show, and if you have never seen them live before, go see them NOW! I don’t really know how they could possibly keep that kind of energy up night after night, but it seems like they do. We were right down in front of the stage, and at the end of the show some of us were actually on stage, dancing our faces off the entire time.

We turned to each other 3/4 of the way through exchanged looks of “This is freaking amazing, but it has to end soon or we are going to die of exhaustion”. At many points the energy was so high it felt like one of those Religious Revival ceremonies where people speak in tongues and shake like epileptics. Even if you don’t want to, !!! will make you dance.

These guys are the masters of build-up. The second song of the set they jumped into “Dear Can”", and that is when the things were just perpetually nuts for the rest of the show. “I don’t give a fuck, I don’t give a shit about this Fuck!” There isn’t much more of a release than screaming that at the top of your lungs over and over again while jumping up and down. The group consists of at least 8 musicians with other musicians occasionally joining them on stage. They operate like a funk band with Nic Offer singing most of the lead vocals, but other vocalists John Pugh and backup singers add a lot to the music.

They are all crazy on stage, constantly interacting with the crowd, kneeling down singing into people’s faces and jumping onto monitors. At one point Offer, jumped up onto a two stacked amp and climbed onto the upper balcony to dance with the crowd above. Their music is a perfect live specimen of sexually charged funk, punk, slight jam band, and visceral psychedelic rock n’ roll.

All morning I have been singing “I don’t give a fuck, I don’t give a shit about this Fuck!”. It is my new motto for anything and anyone who fucks with me for the rest of the day.

!!! – “Dear Can”

UPDATE: thought this song was appropriate for this review. Gives a whole new literal meaning to the chorus: The Blow – Pile Of Gold (MP3)

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