Live Review: Torche, Lizzard Wizzard, Indica

If you were to enter into Crowbar tonight not knowing that you were in for some good-time stoner rock tonight, Indica do a pretty good job of letting you know what’s up.

With a moniker borrowed from a strain of weed, the local doom crew get so slow and heavy that they make you want to eat KFC in your underpants while you watch Spongebob SquarePants.

Then Lizzard Wizzard step up to the plate and hail to the leaf in their own special way. More like the angry stoner than the max-chilled one, the dudes hit their Eyehategod worshipping hardcore like nobody else on the local scene. It’s always a treat to see what these guys do on stage and tonight is no exception.

Then there’s Torche. Who aren’t out and out stoner disciples like the supports. In fact, Torche are an incredibly odd, and more importantly, a rare beast. When they drop into a monstrously heavy joint, you still know there's something sunny right around the corner. Then when they go into full-blown rock mode you know they're just biding time before they slow the tempo down to a funeral dirge and melt your goddamn face off. Imagine if Buzzov*en and the Beach Boys had a baby, and then try and imagine how fucking weird it would be for that baby to put on a kickass rock & roll show.

Just when things are getting super slow and doomy in the set, when Rick Smith's backbeat starts to feel like it's drilling a hole through your chest, Steve Brooks and Andrew Elstner hit a bombastic harmony and you're once again left scratching your head, trying to figure out what the hell is going on.

That's the beauty of watching Torche perform, even if you've listened to all their records – and you should, especially Meanderthal and Songs For Singles – it’s still a surprising experience. Hell, this is a band that you might even still be surprised that you're getting a chance to see, you probably never thought it would happen until life is noise announced that they were bringing them over. And then you add that to that the whacky interpretations Torche bring to cuts like Across The Shields - the sunny desert rock number gets the tempo turned up to 11 to extract every last ounce of bubblegum out of the melodies - or Triumph Of Venus, where Jonathan Nuñez's bass hits you in the solar plexus like you were watching Om play a set.

It would be fantastic to see more bands like Torche. Unfortunately, bands that are like Torche don't really exist. Because there's only Torche. And they kick ass. Here’s to hoping they tour on the back of their next album.