Unida _26_6 @An Club, Athens

There is no doubt that stoner and sludge are the only metal subforms that can attract people outside the heavy metal barriers. That is well understood by Johnny Garcia, singer of the stoner legends Kyuss who has formed three side projects (Slo Burn, Unida, Hermano), has provided vocals for numerous bands and he is ready to release a personal debut with songs written throughout his 25-year singing career.

Unida is a band that released an one an only album “Coping with the Urban Coyote” back in 1999 and dissapeared in the middle of the 00’s mostly because of issues with the record industry that spawned a ghost album “The Great Divide” which can be found as a bootleg only. Nevertheless, the band is back together since 2012 and plays around the world. The Athens gig was Garcia’s personal wish as he mentioned somewhere in the middle of the show, since it was the fourth time in town. An club is not a huge venue but it was nearly packed for the sake of desert rock.

The band lavishly offered their bigger than life riffs by the hands of Arthur Seay who also plays the role of the frontman and the communicator. Their rhythm section stands on a professional level and Garcia’s voice is as fresh as it was two decades earlier. “Wet Pussycat” was the ideal intro, followed by the heavy and steady tunes of “Thorn“. The 10-minute jamming was something we could leave without, but they put things back in place very quickly, epecially with “Black Woman” for the encore that left nobody without moving a piece of their bodies.

No matter Idio,CA is so far away from Athens, Unida embody the whole desert attitude, and the audience happily enjoy.

[photos by Alexandros Sevastos]