LP33.tv Smokeout Festival Interview with Micah and Joe D
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.
