Yesterday’s SmokeOut Festival in San Bernadino was one of the most well-organized and festivals I’ve ever had the pleasure of attending. Beer was plentiful, a variety of tasty food was available, and there were even some indoor bathrooms. Those little amenities helped keep everyone comfortable for the 14-hour festival, but it was the music that really buoyed our spirits. The big names like Cypress Hill, Incubus, and MGMT generated a lot of buzz among the festival-goers, but many of the smaller bands had no shortage of fans crowding the stage. After scoping out the lineup, Hawaii’s Iration was the first group that really caught my attention and wouldn’t let go. I couldn’t get their song ‘Summer Nights’ out of my head, and they were the first (and only) band that was gracious enough to grant me a short but informative live interview before their performance (see video below).

 

They played at the indoor Indonesian Stage, or as Iration called it ‘the hotbox’. The sounds of islands mixed perfectly with the large plumes of smoke coming from the audience, and the band made frequent jokes about the crowd’s enjoyment.  Lead singer Micah had a clear, pleasantly reggae timbre to his voice, and his guitar solos were phenomenal. In fact, the whole band looked and sounded like they had learned a lot from touring with heavy-hitting bands like Umphrey’s McGee and Pepper. They built a mountain of reggae from the ground up, starting with Joe D’s unstoppable kicky drum part filled with amazing effects by their sound engineer King, who was just as much a part of the band onstage. The sound of Adam’s classic rasta bass grooving with the drums helped lay down the tracks for Cayson’s ever-jumping keyboard chords, and the usage of various percussion instruments by vocalist Kai Boy rounded out the group’s unique yet unmistakably reggae sound.

Iration put on a great show, but I thought their songwriting skills were as much of a driving force behind their success as their performance chops. They wrote about things that everyone could relate to: they didn’t just stick to relationship woes, but celebrated the simple joys we all share like ‘Summer Nights’. Iration‘s well-placed use of repetition not only drove home their points, but also helped teach their new fans the lyrics. We all soaked it up like a sponge, chiming in on the last chorus of every song. Iration is currently on tour in support of their full length album Time Bomb released in March. They also have an EP coming out in the near future- keep checking their website for more information on its release.