FFFF Live Review: OFF!

Photo by Sandy Carson

OFF!

Punk rock maturity? First generation Black Flag(ger) and OFF! vocal point Keith Morris frowned, rolled his eyes, and then proved the soul of patience as his band's Fun Fun Fun Fest set got held up for the taco cannon on the stage adjoining his. In fact, the Batmanesque contraption sending volleys of Torchy's Tacos wrapped in bandanas skyward into the Black stage audience looked more like a Gatling gun. When OFF! finally launched their own assault minutes later, theirs was far more fierce, Morris yelling more or less unabated for 30 minutes into the face of a blowing dust storm. Surely he coughed up half of Auditorium Shores that evening. Nevertheless, the singer and his cohorts – guitarist Dimitri Coats, bassist Steven McDonald, and drummer Mario Rubalcaba – bashed out some three-dozen songs, many of them OFF! their eponymous "full-length" (17 songs in about as much time) including "Elimination," "Cracked," and future "hit" "King Kong Brigade" ("I want to club you like a baby seal"). Their First Four EPs also made good, angered by depression ("Black Thoughts," "Darkness," "Panic Attack"), and more anger ("Fuck People," "Full of Shit"). Axe-killer Coats flounced as hard as his curls, Redd Kross god McDonald demonstrated classic rock stage moves, and Rocket From the Crypt kicker Rubalcaba wounded one if not two drum heads. All the while, Morris – bags under his eyes as old as his dreadlocks – made the taco cannon look like a pussy.