Changed my resolution to 800x600, there's 2 buttons there, 1 says auto so I pressed that thinking it might make the resolution stick on next boot but that just put it back to 1024x768 or whatever it was, so I tried the off button thinking no way that's just going to turn my screen off.... Yeah, black screen now, music still playing, is there some combination of keys to get it back on? Or do I have to hard shut it and restart?

If you want the resolution to stick to 800x600 you must edit /etc/xorg.conf.
Open the Control Center > System tab > Config Files (or something like that). Go to xorg.conf, scroll down to the 'screen' section and delete every resolution that is above 800x600.
antiX usually boots to the maximum resolution and it can only be diminished permanently by doing the above procedure.

For other people reading this or for you in your next installation I say that the best way to manage the resolution in antiX is to boot the live-cd with the desired resolution (F3 in the GRUB menu screen) and then that resolution will stick in the installed system.

Did you use the grandr app in the control center? I think it's in the hardware tab (or it may have been moved to the xwindow tab). Or there may be a mepis app available. Check the same tabs previously mentioned.

john