Anyone who has ever been to Coachella - and this is probably applicable to all concert festivals - knows that you have to be prepared to slay the Great Beast of Afternoons. Come 3 p.m., your initial excitement over all the bands you expect to see hisses away like a shriveled balloon, slowly deflating in a hot polo field. You can taste the desert every time you swallow, a harsh reminder that, really, no human being was ever meant to live this far out from civilization. Don't be surprised if a few of the more unstable visitors start wandering toward the horizon, lost in a sunstroke-induced vision quest.
Needless to say, the first time I went to Coachella and stared down that Beast, my friends and I desperately needed a pick-me-up. We hit one of those slots in the day where we didn't recognize any of the names on the lineup and decided to pick one at random. Sticking out like a wavy mirage on the schedule was a band called !!!, which was enough to grab our attention. Surely a band called !!! has to be interesting, right?
That name could just be a gimmick, of course, but we were bored, it was hot, and hell, why not? So we dropped ourselves in front of the stage, where this wiry, wired guy named Nic Offer starts leaping, shaking, convulsing all over the place, his band playing a cross of disco and post-punk I had never heard before. An hour later, everyone was screaming for more - and the only sweaty funk they were paying attention to was what !!! was making on stage.
!!! got us through the hottest part of the day. After their set, I doubt there was a single person in the audience who didn't make a mental note to Google them as soon as they got home (which, of course, proved difficult).
Anyways, what I'm trying to say is, I love this band, their albums have never let me down, and it was a pleasure interviewing Nic about their latest record, Strange Weather, Isn't It? It's up at Verbicide. Check it out.
And for those interested in the band's music, here's their latest video, for a single called "AM/FM."
