Science of Yabra
Thurs Jan 27
Nocturnal
1800 E Burnside

PETER PAN'S A PUSSY. Totally. But for all his faults, hardcore is probably a massive part of his iPod play-list. A good friend of mine once said that hardcore is for dudes who don't wanna grow up, an excuse for young men en route to old age to be wild like children one last time, to raise the kind of ruckus that workaday life doesn't allow.

Portlanders Science of Yabra want nothing more than to get freaky onstage, to journey to the dark heart of primal scream therapy, and channel the inner 5-year-old that hardcore summons, feeds Pixie Stix, then aids and abets.

They do this via violent, half technical/half primitive mega-gnash that sounds a lot like Antioch Arrow or Clikatat Ikatowi--hardcore from the mid-'90s San Diego school. (I didn't wanna mention Drive like Jehu, partially because they were never as good as people nostalgize, but the comparison works.)

The guitars are always high drama, always swelling with distortion like a ripe blackhead about to burst, and always followed--and oft preceded--by a spattering white squall of feedback. The records have never let down, but the band's live show is where it's at.

Onstage, Tim Dunegan (bass), Mike May (drums), and brothers Nick (guitars) and Luke Clements (vocals/guitars), throw caution to the wind, and everything else up in the air--musicianship, vocal chords, instruments--and pick 'em off with a sonic shotgun, blasting 30 minutes of stage time like clay skeet.

This show is a release party for Science of Yabra's new 7" on Grey Sky Records. Fellow rage/funaholics Akimbo, Life at These Speeds, and They Found My Naked Corpse Face Down in the Snow will open. And like any toddler b-day party--what with been-up-too-long temper tantrum emo meltdowns, skinned knees, spirited rounds of eat dirt/drink soda--this one promises to be wild times.