OFF! Debuts New Album Free LSD Live at the Hi-Dive

Photos by Billy Thieme

Keith Morris is a legend – there’s no doubt about that. And not just because he was instrumental in creating and popularizing West Coast Hardcore, or helping launch Black Flag (arguably the keystone of that scene) and the Circle Jerks (definitely instrumental in spreading it), but for being – in his own words – “… the oldest man on this stage,” at 67 years old, still screaming, and kicking.

With his latest band, OFF!, Morris has reached new heights of innovation in hardcore – some might call it post-hardcore – with their latest release Free LSD. The record took six years to make, although progress was interrupted by a hugely popular Circle Jerks reunion tour, and is gaining popularity itself quickly. Last Thursday, the band debuted the songs for the first time in front of a live audience, at our own beloved Hi-Dive, the first of a two-night stand before kicking off what will eventually send them on a worldwide tour.

Last Thursday, OFF! debuted the songs for the first time in front of a live audience, at our own beloved Hi-Dive.

Reviews call the latest album “… psychedelic improvisation,” “…noise, saxophone, and free jazz,” and other things – adjectives not really used to describe Morris’s oeuvre, ever. On the cramped stage at the Hi-Dive, Morris was joined by OFF! co-founder and guitarist Dmitri Coats, bassist Autry Fulbright II  (You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead), and drummer Justin Brown (Thundercat) for just about an hour of fun.

Morris, with a ragged beard and signature near-body-length dreadlocks, was surrounded by 4-foot scrolls both hung and taped to the floor showing lyrics. He wore a ragged paperboy cap, his now signature thick, black, heavy-rimmed glasses, and ragged jeans and a couple of old shirts as he gesticulated, screamed, pointed, questioned, and howled through most – if not all – of the 20 songs on Free LSD. Coats backed him with searing guitar riffs and howls, never stopping on stage except between songs, when he would work with petals and electronics to make whaling, screaching sounds. Meanwhile, Fullbright and Brown alternated between a post-hardcore-hardcore and free jazz rhythm section.

Coats backed Morris with searing guitar riffs and howls, never stopping on stage except between songs.

In keeping surprises coming, it turns out that Free LSD is also a companion piece to the upcoming sci-fi movie of the same name, scheduled to close out the 29th Slamdance Film Festival (taking place between January 20-26, and streaming on Slamdance Channel from January 23-29). The movie is gaining some buzz, and sounds like a typical jaunt through Morris and Coats’ minds, featuring aliens, abductions, rock n’ roll, experimental drugs, parallel universes, and conspiracy. Jack Black stars alongside Morris and other OFF! band members, and it reportedly looks a little more like Alex Cox’s Repo Man than any of the Tenacious D vehicles.

SPIN Magazine quoted Morris describing the film in a recent piece:

“First off, it’s a science fiction movie that involves the band OFF! and there’s a love story attached to it,” Morris says. “I’m chosen to save the world, but I can’t save the world unless I have my fellow bandmates together. We’re the Fantastic Four. We are the X-Men. We are the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. We are the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”

– SPIN Magazine, July 27, 2022

A new album and a new film, not bad for a rock n’ roll icon, birther of West Coast Hardcore, and seminal leader of US Punk Rock. But what’s more impressive is the fact that this 67-year-old appears not to have missed a beat, is still kickin’, and kickin’ strong.