The notorious dead zone at the front of the stage of the Corner Hotel was alive and kicking for once, with a well earned crowd gathering for openers Batpiss. Sounding even more ball-breaking through a Marshall stack and Ampeg fridge, Batpiss tore through a set of noise-rock with lashings of punk-rock energy. Bassist Thomy Sloane and guitarist Paul Pirie battled each other with shredded vocals howls, imbibed with just the right amount of venom. This band makes you want to go out, smash things and cause a mighty ruckus.
Adhering to a more traditional punk rock model, main support Bloody Hammer kept the crowd’s pulses racing with their street punk onslaught. Singer Yeap is one springy dude, bouncing all over the stage (and off it) tearing through song after song with guttural force.
After a few cheeky jokes about playing the whole set behind the red curtain and the crowd having to imagine what was happening, OFF! ripped into Panic Attack, followed sharply by I Don’t Belong and I Got News For You. Keith Morris is manic with the whites of his deranged eyes communicating just as much as his angry vocals. The band deliver their set with the expected precision and ferocity, only slowed down by a few occasions where Morris reminds the crowd to be ‘nice to each other’, singling out one particularly crowd member who let a crowd surfer bite the dust. Morris must start getting a little self conscious about his monitoring of the crowds behaviour and at one point suggests we think of think of him as a kind of ‘uncle’ who has a few years on us. For the most part the crowd is happy to accept advice from this punk rock stalwart but is eager to get back to business. Once again the pit turns into a writhing mass of limbs as OFF! smash through Wiped Out, Peace in Hermosa,Cracked and Elimination plus loads more bringing it all home with Upside Down. Done and dusted. OFF! don’t do encores and after a set of 20 plus songs, why the hell should they?
BY KRYSTAL MAYNARD
LOVED: Thinking of Keith Morris as my uncle.
HATED: Irritating hecklers.
DRANK: Liquid.
