OFF! / Trash Talk @ King Tut's, 21 June

Trash Talk open up a night of quickfire hardcore with the menacing dissonance of Hash Wednesday – a sludgy, doom-laden number far removed from the rest of their catalogue – but the tempo shoots up as frontman Lee Spielman emerges, initiating a frenzy of vicious circle-pit brutality. It's a truly terrifying sight which prompts the less confident of tonight's bystanders to take a few cautious steps backwards.

 

Spielman's time is hardly spent onstage with the thrashy rhythm section; instead, he opts to get his face up in members of the rabid crowd who join in with the venom-spitting. The band's set only lasts half an hour, but they feed the room with more than enough adrenaline to leave one feeling suitably violated.

 

Comprised of Black Flag, Hot Snakes and Goon Moon alumni, OFF!'s seasoned players rigorously plough through their riff-exalting micro-tunes with similarly breakneck speed, though it's the catchier tracks from their First Four EP's (Poison City, Upside Down and opener Panic Attack) which garner a noticeably stronger reaction than the material from their fresh self-titled album.

 

The sheer energy of their performance keeps the momentum steady regardless, and a mid-fifties Keith Morris is still as iconic (and pissed off) as ever – his tense stage presence and bizarre between-song banter will attest to that. The breadth of the music they've served up still feels a little underwhelming by the time the band abruptly leave the stage, but they re-emerge with an electrifying double-whammy of Black Thoughts and Darkness. Tonight, it's the only proof we need that punk's not dead. [Ross Watson]