Line-up

Venue

Union Transfer

1026 Spring Garden Street, 19123, Philadelphia, PA, US

www.utphilly.com/

Capacity: 1,000

View upcoming concerts

Pelican biography

Pelican is a post-metal band known for their entirely instrumental and overtly cinematic compositions. They are influenced by like minded predecessors such as Isis and Neurosis, but also take cues from sludge/doom metal groups like Sleep and Black Sabbath and jazz tinged, post-rock pioneers such as Tortoise.

Pelican was conceived in Chicago, Illinois, US by brothers Bryan and Larry Herweg (the band’s drummer and bass player respectively) and guitarists Trevor de Brauw and Laurent Schroeder-Lebec. After 11 years with the band Lebec left the formation and was replaced by Dallas Thomas in 2012.

Considering the many parallels drawn between Pelican and Isis it made since that they would sign on to Hydra Head Records (a label owned and run by Isis member Aaron Turner). Through this label Pelican released their 2003 eponymous EP and followed it up with their studio debut “Australasia”. “Australasia” was a critical hit and pushed the group into niche, but respected metal circuits alongside acts like the Russian Circles.

Before switching over to the label Southern Lord Records, the band released two more albums through Hydra Records: 2005’s “The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw” and 2007’s “City of Echoes”.

On 6 June 2009 Pelican made their 1st release through Southern Lord Records, their EP “Ephemeral”. The band supported their acquisition to the label and their new release with a promotional tour alongside label mates “Wolves in the Throne Room”. For Pelican’s 2009 album “What We All Come to Need”, they recruited Greg Anderson and Aaron Turner as guest musicians and went into a much darker and brooding direction, borrowing the riff based structure established by bands such as Black Sabbath.

Pelican released the EP “Ataraxia/Taraxis” in 2012 and embarked on a lengthy European tour, which included stops at the Dunk Festival in Belgium and the Roadburn Festival in the Netherlands. Pelican released their 2nd studio album “Forever Becoming” through Southern Lord Records in 2013.

Apart from playing in Pelican, members Larry Herweg, Trevor de Brauw, and Laurent Schroeder-Lebec comprise the experimental-metal group Tusk. Pelican has also released several splits with many highly credited bands such as post-hardcore aficionados, These Arms are Snakes and Japanese post-rock sensation, Mono.

Live reviews

Post-rock and black metal have never sounded this good together. Russian Circles manipulates the sweeping beauty of instrumental rock music and meshes it together with the "slit-your wrist" depressed style of doom metal. It is always fascinating to have two extremes paired together. Reflective sensitivity and ear shattering nihilism intuitively have no place together, but Russian Circles makes it work. They can linger in the beauty of quite atmospheric tones, but rupture the silence with sonic waves of clashing cymbals and heavily distorted / detuned bass.
There really isn't much apparent melody in the performances of Russian Circles and their live presentation at best is stoic. However this does not mean they are boring to see live. If the incredible loudness of the performance doesn't shake you into absolute mesmerization than the technical connectivity of the band will. They weave pieces of noise into interesting textures and create auricular palates consisting of sounds that offset each other in interesting ways. The drums provide a barbaric and simply calculated beat, at other times they are unpredictable and complex. The guitar is used primarily for textural construction introducing sharp hisses of noise, reverberated echoes and soft soundscapes. The bass adds a huge punch to the music really accenting the drum beat and keeping the overall structure of the song on track.
For a three piece band Russian Circles offers a wide array of sounds. Going to one of their concerts you could be basking in the ambience and beauty of such tracks as "Memorial" or feel like you are battling against the baltic winds on a viking ship with brooding pieces such as "309".

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wjmcc

Well, what can I say?

I was left absolutely speechless by the amazing Pelican at Gorilla on the 3rd of May.

They delivered a highly impressive and powerful performance that I was honestly blown away by. Absolutely brilliant stuff. They certainly lived up to expectation and I was completely captivated by them.

I'll most definitely be on the look out to catch them live more often. We'll played lads, til next time.

Also a big shout out to Mugstar. It was great to see them live again in support. They absolutely killed it. Excellent stuff all round.

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