Moth Club, Hackney
"Are there any Pink Floyd fans out there?"
Punk stalwarts, Off!, ransack the glistening Moth Club to the delight of Hackney's audience: in search of punk-infused mantras and unabated turmoil.
It seems as though nothing more phases Keith Morris & Co than a crucible of people shoving, heaving, and toiling to their brand of thrashed punk. They’ve seen this scenario play out repeatedly for the best part of 40 years yet this one situates itself inside Hackney’s Moth Club, its gold ceiling reflecting a mixture of sweet pale ales and salty bodily sweat.
Even prior to performing Off!'s onslaught of frenzied hardcore punk, the audience seemed visibly fidgety, eager to release the pressure valve which had since been soaking up the anxious atmosphere for the past hour or so. Morris’ vapid attempt to keep the crowd at bay during this crescendo, “Any Pink Floyd fans out there?”, proves unabated to the turmoil yet to ensue in a matter of moments.
A lightning-in-a-bottle set is what ensues over the next 45 minutes. The punk supergroup (devised of former members from Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Burning Bridges) catapults us forward without looking back, barely pausing for breath along the way. Crowd favourites from their latest 3rd LP, Free LSD, ‘Slice Up The Pie’ and ‘Kill to be Heard’, effortlessly match the hysterical moshing of the crowd - forever heaving as wave upon wave from the sold-out crowd crash against the stage.
At points, this raw energy spills over into the band as a kinetic tension between guitarist Dimitri Coats and drummer Justin Brown ostensibly plays out during a handful of tracks - perhaps incorrectly playing the right track, not starting on the right tempo - who knows. Besides these awkward footings, Off! dismiss these tiffs against the infallible tide of old-school punk - expertly executing a myriad of high-octane tempos and relentless riffs, packaged neatly into 2-3 minute tracks, very much akin to that of Dead Kennedys or Black Flag. Matching this, the insatiable masses of, predominantly middle-aged, white men dutifully heaved and hurled one another at every opportunity.
As the dreadlocked, hardened frontman Keith Morris once put it in his 2016 book, The Story of a Punk Rock Survivor, “All of my friends and acquaintances were guys and gals like me: damaged souls doing whatever it took to get by”, and perhaps this best articulates the essence of Off!’s following: a herded mass of damaged souls getting through life at a concert which went as quickly as it came. A suturing occasion for those prepared to fall on their sword of Morris' punk-defining mantras.
7/10
Off's latest LP, Free LSD, is out now and can be found below.
Photo is courtesy of Nicholas Sayers whose work can be found here.
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