Off! / Trash Talk – Live Review

Off! / Trash Talk |Sound Control, Manchester | 25^th June 2012

Tonight’s gig, to use a very topical footballing analogy, was indeed a game of two halves. Two bands cut from the same cloth but at the same time from different ends of the spectrum. First up we had the current poster boys for the new wave of young hard-core punk Trash Talk. The first signing to the fledgling Odd Future Wolfgang Kill Them All record label who are not part of their particular stable of rappers such as Tyler the Creator and co. With a blossoming reputation for an energetic (to put it mildly) stage presence and a rapidly growing fan base of young devotees who consume every single morsel of output these guys produce, expectations were high. As soon as lead singer Lee Spielman took to the stage looking every part the west coast punk with long dank hair and attitude to match it was clear their reputation preceded them with good reason. Spielman spent more time off the stage than on it, hurtled around the crowd, swung from the rafters and screamed his way through the set. The band, tight as hell, attacked each song in the set with thrash tinged sensibilities at a million miles an hour and whenever Spielman’s youthful exuberance over took his ability to deliver the lyrics the young participants whirling round in the circling mosh pit at the front were more than happy to fill in the gaps. All in all an impressive set and hopes are high for when they release their first OFWGKTA album later this year.

Then a strange thing happened. A good number of the young Trash Talk fan’s left. Now I’m not one to pass judgement but it seems like a strange thing to do if you are any kind of hard-core fan considering the next act to come. However, as the young ‘uns cleared the floor their space was filled by a number of much older and considerably more grizzled original punks giving a hint of what was to come.  Following on from Trash Talk we had Off! made up of alumni of various original hard-core and hard rock bands such as Black Flag, Redd Kross and Circle Jerks. I would have to stop short, however, of using the detestable term ‘super-group’. Led by the incomparable Keith Morris who belying his 56 years on earth (sorry Keith, had to mention it) still manages to conjure up an intensity on stage matched only by the incendiary lyrics despatched in tracks such as ‘Borrow to Bomb’, ‘Fuck People’ and ‘Now I’m Pissed’.  Decades of fronting seminal punk bands has given Morris the ability to control the stage and crowd, prowling around, eyes bulging delivering every word with real purpose and menace. As expected of a band containing so many hardened veterans no questions were asked about the delivery of the songs, everything was tight, perfect and loud as it deserved. One un-expected inclusion in the set was a genuinely touch dedication from Morris to long time friend and former Gun Club lead singer Jeremy Lee Pierce.

I have to say I was looking forward to seeing how this was going to turn out given the juxtaposition of the new and old, the young upstarts and the original old guard. Neither band disappointed and my hopes and expectations are rightly high for the new material to be delivered from both.