Oh Tuesday nights, how slow and uneventful you are. Especially in the tiny corner of America known as Santa Barbara, what to do, what to do? I used my power of the hook up and got me and a fellow on air radio dj coworker Bernie Bags to come get some serious funky bass action on a Tuesday night. Much to my surprise he was ALL about it once I mentioned that it was a !!! (chk chk chk) show. I had 1 stipulation, we had to check out the opening act, Wild Belle, I have spun them on New Noize and only had their single so I had to check it, get it? More on that in a bit.
Stroll into Soho, a tiny venue with a whole lotta character, around 930ish (perfect timing by the way) and Wild Belle was just getting on stage. Things that you note at first glance included, theres like 5 people in the band, damn that chick can sing and shes super fine, does that dude have a saxophone? He does! and he plays guitar? and 2 keyboards, plus he's gonna sing.
Wild Belle was a nice, mellow opener of what was to come. This band must have started out as a reggae crew, as they were pulling some classic reggae movements, base lines and melodies mixed with their own sound. Did I mention the lead singer was not only strikingly beautiful, but her voice was, well strikingly beautiful. All in all check em out, I dug em and would definitely see them again.
Ok time to get down on some !!! Before going to this show I was super tired, I mean its a Tuesday night, the venue was at 75 % capacity tops, I wasn't having any fermented beverages and my bed was calling my name the whole night. Then !!! decide to come out. The only time I saw them was at a Coachella in like 2006/2007, it was in the middle of the day and I was 1/2 passed out during that show due to heat and sweaty hippies. I have only heard good things from hipsters and non hipsters a like.
Another quick side note about Soho. Its one of those venues that has a staple over 40 crowd that goes to any show they put on. This is especially good people watching when you mix an all ages show, as was the case this past Tuesday night.
!!! take the stage and withing seconds anyone who was feeling blah (like myself) instantly morphed into a dancing fool. !!! had 6 people killing it onstage, and at some point youngings would get on stage and shake it up until security threw em of stage, silly rabbits.
When you are talking about !!! your talking about funky bass, a WHOLE LOTTA FUNKY BASS. The bass player was like the pied piper and the crowd was in a total dance trance as he and his fellow band members forced the crowd to involuntary pull the crazy dance moves that would embarrass the most brazen tween. Oh white people, sometimes you just make my night.
Talking about white people, the lead singer, Nic Offer, is one bad motherfucking Motherfucker. His ability to uplift and maintain the groove level of the crowd at a steady high was uncanny, his dance moves would dissolve your retina's and his voice will make any ear hole bleed to make room for more sound to get in. !!! took a Tuesday night and kicked the shit out of it, so yeah they kicked ass, shoulda' been there.
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