!!! at the Bowery Ballroom

Nic Offer

Vocalist Nic Offer formed !!! (pronounced "Chk Chk Chk") as a dance punk band in 1996 in Sacramento, California. The band's name was inspired by the subtitles of the movie The Gods Must Be Crazy, in which the clicking sounds of the Bushmens' Khoisan language were represented as "!". The band !!! is composed of Offer, Mario Andreoni (guitar), Dan Gorman and Allan Wilson (horns/percussion/keys), Tyler Pope (bass/various electronic devices), and Paul Quattrone (drums). The band currently is based in New York City, Sacramento, and Portland, Oregon. The band's sixth album, As If, was released on October 16, 2015.

!!! headlined at the Bowery Ballroom tonight and had its fans dancing from the first note until the last. Dressed in a plain t-shirt and short shorts, Offer also danced throughout the show, several times even in the audience. As the band played simple dance grooves, Offer sang in his best Sam Smith falsetto. It all seemed tongue-in-cheek, like faux disco to make the listener chuckle and dance simultaneously. Nevertheless, the trap house beats, the sinewy bass lines and the chigga-chigga guitar lines were real and thoroughly retro. It may be a novelty, but !!! revved up a party spirit very well.

Visit !!! at www.chkchkchk.net.