SHOW REVIEW: 11/11 @ Nara, JAVELINA, HUMAN SMOKE, JAIL, SOUR MILK SEA

I had been anticipating this show for weeks. Up first was Richmond's SOUR MILK SEA and, unfortunately, I missed them. This wasn't out of apathy though. I was pretty excited to see these guys because their bass player, Tommy Hamiliton, was once a member of Florida's early 80s punk heroes HATED YOUTH. HATED YOUTH played fast, furious hardcore punk reminiscent of the early 80s DC Hardcore sound. Along with ROACH MOTEL, these guys were the essence of the early Gainesville punk scene. He has subsequently spent his time recording a variety of sweet bands and playing in a few himself. Unfortunately, Wilbo wouldn't answer his damn phone to tell me when the show started and by the time I got there SOUR MILK SEA had just finished their set. I heard they were pretty sweet though.

Next up was JAIL. If I'm not mistaken, the female guitar player was formerly a member of Kansas crust/down-tempo heavyweights SAMOTHRACE. JAIL played a pretty good set of stoner metal that was fairly generic at times and pretty damn powerful at other times. The vocals were pretty evil sounding. I wish they would ditch some of the noodley blues riffs that I've heard countless stoner bands rehash over and over. They had a few moments where everything clicked and it sounded pretty badass though. All in all a solid set and definitely solid dudes/dudette.

Third was Philly's JAVELINA. Last time JAVELINA came through they played at Nara with SOURVEIN and they owned. They played another great set this time, although I think it carried on a bit too long. JAVELINA plays a unique brand of hardcore that's really, really heavy on the low end and incorporates some down-tuned metal riffery and and a brutal, pounding pace. Short/no hair and neck beards abound. The best part about this set was the vocals from the guitar player on the right with short hair and a slightly longer, thinner, neckier beard than the other guitar player with short hair and a neck beard. He only provided about 30 percent of the vocals but I wish he did more because it was absolutely brutal. The best song they played by far was the last song of their set, which kicked right into a faster punk beat and didn't relent. I wish they could have maintained that energy level through the entire set. They have a CD out on Translation Loss record (apparently it will be available on vinyl soon) and some really evil and well done shirt designs. Definitely worth checking out.

Last was Richmond's very own HUMAN SMOKE. These guys haven't played a show in 6 months and all the locals were stoked. I don't think I've ever seen HUMAN SMOKE when at least one of their members wasn't robotripping. Unfortunately, the only one consuming cough medicine this time was Mark (vocals) because he was actually sick as shit. This was a pretty long show and I was heavily intoxicated by the time they went on. HUMAN SMOKE plays drug riddled punk that's a mix of FLIPPER's fucked up, relentless grunge and some stoner metal riffery. They played a short, sweet, 4 song set that spanned about 15 minutes. Something I never noticed before but really stood out this time was Scoot's (guitar) vocals. They were burly as hell. After the set Scoot and Delicious (drums) played a two man encore song that was evil as hell. I don't know if that's a potential side project or just a jam but it was awesome. HUMAN SMOKE sounds a little like a bad mushroom trip that's lasted way too long and on top of it all you're starting to get a killer hangover, and I mean that in the best possible way. If that doesn't mean anything to you, you'd probably hate HUMAN SMOKE. They'd probably hate you too.