If you ask your Indio-bound buddies which band delivered The Set Of Saturday and they answer with anyone other than !!!, we can explain: They weren't at the Mojave tent at approximately 6:40PM, when the dance-punk octet brought fire to the desert. Nic Offer's impossibly short shorts in full effect, the manic frontman-of-the-year stretched and smirked, snarling "Oh you guys have been waiting for THIS, haven't you?" -- met with the tent's deafening assent. Nodding to the noise, Offer offered: "Yeah, us too." With that, the raunchy rocker launched into his arm-flailing convulsions and patented pelvic thrusts as the band cranked a relentless "All My Heroes Are Weirdos."
We haven't checked Chk Chk Chk since last summer's Øya Festivalen in Oslo, prior to the release of their return-to-form funk-slammer Myth Takes. But the classics are still just that; "Pardon My Freedom" was second on deck, Nic acting out each "Like I give a fuck" as disparate characters (defiant punk terrorist with one pass, effeminately obstinate Valley girl the next). "Heart Of Hearts" brought a treat for the myth takers with vocalist Shannon Funchess reprising her studio vocal for the craziest crowd we've seen yet.
"Yadnus," "Must Be The Moon," non-stop, straight killer. We ran into our old friend Naeem Juwan (a.k.a. Spank Rock) later in the night, and he concurred with the crowd: "I've watched 'em a lot lately, and that was the best !!! show I've ever seen." (More from our night with Spank Rock TK.) Between hopelessly imitating Nic's moves (not a pretty sight), we took around 300 pictures, the best of which you'll find after the jump.
