No fancy dress was required on Halloween Saturday, for the straight shirted New York dance punksters !!! (Chk Chk Chk) to deliver a colourful funk fest on the Classic Grand dancefloor.
Within moments of hopping onstage, frontman Nic Offer wizardly threw shapes underneath his dull overcoat before even reaching for his (cordless) mic, as the band dove straight into new album’s lead track and single ‘AM/FM’.
The lack of microphone cable was put to good effect as he entangled himself amongst the slowly swelling crowd (hampered by a 20:45 kick off), with frequent forays to the back of the dance-floor interrupting late arrivals heading straight for the bar with his crotch jiving actions.
This interaction went so far as one front-punter literally going forehead to forehead (glued for an entire verse to Offer’s sweaty brow), a chicken hat being pilfered for a few tracks and Carol Voderman lead onstage to steal the limelight mid-set.
Vocalist Shannon Funchess, one half of Brooklyn dastardly electro fusion duo Light Asylum, injected vocal soul to the lineup, and is a major feature on the new LP ‘Strange Weather, Isn’t It?‘.
The show was richer for her part, bellowing along to the groove – sleeves rolled up with a neatly perched Soviet red beret atop, rarely without a tambourine in hand -as the band rode a gautlet of newer tracks until Funchess bowed out halfway through the set.
The remaining core sextet dug back a decade to pull out their ferocious debut EP stormer, ‘Me And Giuliani Down By The School Yard’ that pinned their kaleidoscopic colours to the rock-meets-house mast.
A true classic of the era, Offer apologised for wheeling it out on their last Scottish appearance at The Arches in June, the gears were shifted up and the electro twiddling was replaced by hard hitting bongos and brass, the standout basslines tangoed with fresh licks of cowbell.
It was so rousing The Wee Review found themselves lost in the music to “cut loose, and shake that butt” front and centre, a forced moment of debauched unprofessionalism worth every hip shaking second.
Commitment to covering their new record made any deviation all the more salivating, but a conclusive performance of 2007’s ‘Must Be The Moon’ saw the band change back down the gears, although lapped up as eagerly anything the setlist could offer.
Sounding structurally similar to next lead single, ‘Jamie, My Intentions Are Bass’, played at the opposite end of the night, the band sternly steadied themselves for landing with the last few songs as Offer apologised “they gotta disco or something after” – whether the dancefloor would reach similar feverpitch is doubtful.
The set came crashing around pulsating combo of returning to the debut EP for a bumrush of ‘Intensify’ and winding up with new album closer-cum-showstopped ‘The Hammer’.
Cowbells and bongos akimbo (and bang on 22:00 curfew) Offer was carried on a lap of honour around the venue, much to the behest of security – and a good five hours earlier a conclusion than the crowd would have no doubt preferred.
This wasn’t the most difficult gig conundrum Carol Voderman will have to solve, but was more than enough to see !!! through to the next, hopefully later timeslot staged round…