OFF! at Dundas Square, Thursday, June 16. NXNE Rating: NN
The songs played by Keith Morris’s classic-sounding punk combo OFF! are incredibly short. In fact, the longest track played during their Thursday set sandwiched between Fucked Up and the Descendents was around 94 seconds.
Nothing wrong with brevity. But unfortunately Morris, who is a legend of the genre as former frontman of Black Flag and the Circle Jerks, likes filling the gaps with extended between-song banter.
The dreadlocked singer killed the energy of their set with incoherent tirades about “evil governments,” 9-11 conspiracies and other anti-everything ramblings that didn’t seem to go anywhere insightful.
Guitarist Dimitri Coats, who among Redd Kross bassist Steve McDonald and RFTC drummer Mario Rubalcaba is probably the least well known in OFF!, was the best part of the show with his fierce hardcore punk attack. Too bad the 55-year-old Morris felt a need to take the term “crust punk” to a new level.
Read an interview with the band here.
