Cerebral Ballzy opened the show and while their vocalist was admittedly wasted, they definitely didn't suffer for it or play with any less energy than you'd expect. A blistering half hour of early Suicidal Tendencies/Bad Brains inspired skate punk, songs about beer, pizza, the MTA and good stuff like that went over well. It all ended with the singer on the floor. If the crowd didn't go as nuts for them as they did for the later two acts it wasn't from lack of effort on CB's part.
Trash Talk was next and the crowd went almost as nuts as the band did. There were people all over the stage, and the singer spent as much time in the audience and on the floor and on the railings as he did with the rest of the band. They also played for about a half an hour or so and a more intense live act you're not likely to see any time soon.
Off! - made up of Keith Morris (Black Flag/Circle Jerks) on vocals, Dimitri Coats (Burning Brides) on guitar, Steven McDonald (Red Cross) on bass and Mario Rubalcaba (Rocket From The Crypt) on drums - have played NYC a few times in the last year but this is Santo's is the biggest venue they've hit so far (they previously played Club Europa in Brooklyn, did an in-store at Generation Records and did a CMJ performance at a Levi's tent!). Without a whole lot of material to perform (their First 4 EP's collection of sixteen tracks doesn't last more than half an hour tops) they still managed to work the crowd into a pretty serious frenzy. Morris talked a lot in between songs, as he is known to do, at one point causing someone to yell 'Shut up and play' but that didn't stop him from explaining what inspired certain tracks or waxing nostalgic about his demised friend Jeffrey Lee Pierce (who Morris at one point said was hanging out up at the mixing board watching over us).
For an encore they brought Lee from Trash Talk out and dedicated a song to him, after which Morris said they were going to play their set all over again. That didn't happen but either way, no one left the venue last night feeling like they didn't get 100% from each of the three bands.
I spent it getting Motorheaded with a bunch of old-school drug and drunkfucked bogans, dribbling, falling over, agro'ing and getting ejected from the venue by Maori bouncers en masse!
They're playing a far-too-small club here next month. That part kinda sucks.