!!!

It's Friday evening and for some reason your reviewer can’t feel his leg. In fact, the reason is that two nights previously, at a venue formerly used for recording The Goon Show, he jumped around like a 16-year-old at an Enter Shikari show to the song ‘Heart of Hearts’ by the Warp recording artists known to phoneticists as Chk Chk Chk.

This detail, while superfluous, is perhaps worth noting as said reviewer rarely lifts his eyebrows during gigs, let alone his feet. But !!!’s live shows have always demanded the complete and utter entrapment of their audiences. From the second Nic Offer starts pushing his arms to the ground like a deranged pommel horse rider to the Americans’ sweaty retreat from the stage, you're hooked in.

Tonight at Koko we’re witnessing the culmination of a ten-month tour which has already seen them hit London twice before this year. After openers Holy Fuck leave the stage there’s an air of an impending dance-off that builds until the eight-piece enter stage left – with recently departed (from the band, not this mortal coil) singer/percussionist John Pugh being replaced by sometime collaborator Shannon Funchess.

As ‘Must Be The Moon’ and ‘Myth Takes’ pierce the ears of the theatre a young lass (who we can assume wasn’t unfamiliar with Gary Ablett) wrenches herself onto a column supporting the Koko’s first balcony and proceeds to spend the rest of the gig lurching precariously over our shoulders. Thing is, you can’t blame her – we’ve rarely had so much fun.

A truly epic rendition of ‘Me And Guiliani…’ sees the noise levels rise from body-popping to delirious and by the time we get to ‘Heart of Hearts’ there’s chaos at the front of the stage as people hammer themselves up and down. After the last song, Offer leads his bandmates in a goodbye from the road that sounds ominously like a final farewell (we’re assured it isn’t) as the crowds squeegee themselves out of the narrow venue exits. Let’s hope they do make it back.