Sacramento-born and currently Brooklyn based dance punk band !!! (or also named “chk chk chk”, which helps cause !!! is basically unsearchable on Google 🙂 ) did a three night residency at Union Pool last week. The dates (8th,9th and 10th) matched the US elections – times of turmoil along with the shocking for many Newyorkers victory of Donald Trump. Me and Jeff saw the band at their last night of residency – right after the new president was chosen – and I was happy to see the show sold out and the venue full of smiling dancing people. The female voice of the band Mean Pace was thematically wearing a black top with the words “All your fault” on the stage and actually funny fact is that the polls showed that over 60% of Williamsburg voted Trump. XD She shared with the audience the story of her uncle seeing her Facebook post that she’s feeling blue and has to go shake her ass and responding “dancing is the best revenge”.
The setlist was a blend of their latest album “As if”, along with older stuff and the band definitely showed high energy and music craftsmanship on stage. And no surprise – they’ve been together for over 20 years already. In the summer of 1995 !!! was created merging part of the group Black Liquorice and Popesmashers. After a successful joint tour, these two teams decided to mix the disco-funk with more aggressive sounds and integrate the hardcore singer Nic Offer from the Yah Mos. 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 “!”. However, as the bandmembers themselves say, !!! is pronounced by repeating thrice any monosyllabic sound. “Chk Chk Chk” is the most common pronunciation.
If you’re free and around Manhattan this Friday don’t miss to hear Meah Pace performing some of her favorite jazz and blues music at Metropolis Cocktail Bar on Union Square 7 to 11 PM. The next show of the band in its full is still unannounced: keep yourself posted through !!!’s Facebook page.
