It’s kinda tough telling your mates you’re “gonna go see !!! tonight!”. I had a few people ask me what I was doing Friday night, and when I told them, all I got were the same perplexed looks on their faces similar to when I told them “I am Doctor Handsome”. That’s because the name of the band is comprised of three exclamation marks, one after the other (as for “Doctor Handsome”, they were perplexed because they just couldn’t handle my handsomeness). The name itself was inspired by the film The Gods Must Be Crazy, specifically the subtitles which translated the mouth-clicking language the Bushmen spoke. One classic scene from the film involved the main character N!xau (played by the inimitable Xi in the biggest Oscars snub since Johnny Depp’s overlooked performance in Benny & Joon), angrily chiding a Coke bottle for bringing evil to his village. If there’s a better inspiration for the creation of a band name than this, I HAVE YET TO HEAR OF IT.

The sound of the 7-member strong !!! (chk chk chk) is something to behold. After years of appreciating their genre-bending style on memorable releases such as 2001’s self-titled album, 2004’s Louden Up Now and their most recent release, last year’s Myth Takes, I was infinitely curious to see (er, hear?) how that sound would be translated and presented for a live audience. I mention the oft-used and clichéd term “genre-bending” because the music skirts across various different styles without settling on just one. Songs go for an average of 7 minutes, changing groove, style and genre every few minutes or so. Arguably, what they create is a long-winded soup, a gumbo if you will, comprised of house/dance music, techno, disco, funk and some good ol balls-to-the-wall rock, a dish which never seems to get old or repetitive despite the long playing time. Now pay particular attention to the “balls-to-the-wall rock” statement, because that’s where the live show comes in. Follow me to the next paragraph, won’t you?

Not too long ago, I witnessed possibly the greatest concert moment in my short 23 (soon to be 24) years on this planet. That was the Foo Fighters concert at Rod Laver Arena. I literally cried at one stage like those crazy chicks you see in old black-and-white footage at Elvis or Beatles concerts. And alongside that, the last band I expected to ROCK THE FUCK OUT were !!!, but rock out they did. Boasting a fully-stocked stage complete with drum kit, beat machines, mixers/DJ gear, guitars, bass and various percussion instruments, the amplitude of the entire event was EPIC. Lead vocalist Nic Offer not only possessed the ability to scream with the best of em, he also displayed a swagger reminiscent of Mick Jagger. Nic resembled more of the traditional rock-band frontman, running and flailing about, and at one stage even jumping into the crowd with his drum stick and cowbell.

Ripping through their set, !!! started at 11.45 and ended up playing only for an hour, returning for one brief encore. It had, however, felt like they’d been playing all night, judging from the amped up audience who were sweating profusely from the intense Chk Chk Chk jams, which had been transformed into near-rock anthems on the night. While they didn’t play one of their more popular songs (and my personal favourite) Me & Giuliani Down By The Schoolyard (A True Story), they did manage to cover enough material to leave the crowd wanting more, but still thoroughly satisfied (I did recognise Heart of Hearts in there somewhere).

!!! are infused with the 80s synth funk of Europe’s Blue Feather, the technical proficiency of a world-class techno DJ, with a few shades of Joy Division, and pulling it all off live with a huge post-punk energy that deftly permeates into the crowd, transforming into immutable energy that drives both crowd and band into a high-octane frenzy (and the winner of Most Convoluted Paragraph EVER, goes to…). In short, going to see them live? Expect a memorable epic-like rock concert on a small scale.