Pelican, Suicide Note, Head Of Skulls 11/22/08

In an effort to add a little more variety to the types of articles that appear on this blog... I present a review. The show that will be featured in this writing took place the Saturday before this in the college town of DeKalb, Illinois home of Northern Illinois University at the always cool House Cafe located downtown.

The show started a little later than typically expected, but I still managed to show up late and miss a good portion of the first band, Head of Skulls', set. From what I can gather from the few songs that I heard of theirs, they are a trio from the Chicago area that play a blend of punk and rock. From what I saw, I liked. The band had a really good attitude and played their music reasonably well. While it might not be a brand of music I will find myself going back to, I would go ahead and say that they are worth checking out. They've self-released their latest EP and that is always worthy of respect to me.

The second band of the night was an awesome surprise for me. Suicide Note has apparently been around for a long time and I have been ignorantly unaware of them for most of that time. They play a kind of noisey chaotic post-hardcore blend that is really addicting to listen to, and really fun to watch. It's really awesome to watch a band play music and not have any idea where the music is going to go. It's completely unpredictable and completely awesome. Most of the people in the place were really into them (minus irrelevant drunk idiot guy), and despite some small technical problems, they were really great. I've since picked up some of their music and have been listening to it quite a bit. I really urge you to listen to them if you haven't.

Finally, Pelican took the stage around 10 pm to the crowd's delight. I have seen Pelican before and I have been a Pelican fan for a long time now, but seeing them is just awesome. For those who do not know, Pelican is an instrumental/post-metal/prog-rock band from Chicago that have been cranking out masterfully composed tunes for the last 7 years or so. They played a great mix of old material and newer songs as well as completely new songs. The newer songs sounded really good, and had a different feel than their older material. They played a song that will be on an upcoming split with Young Widows that had some ridiculous heaviness to it, and played 'The Woods' from their first EP to the glee of those familiar with it.

Eventually irrelevant drunk idiot guy went too far and was asked to vacate the front of the venue after leaning over on stage and touching one of the guitar players gear on the floor much to the rest of the audience's pleasure. The set lasted for a little over an hour, and was easily the best set that I've seen Pelican play. I'm really excited to see what 2009 holds for the band esepcially after hearing that new material. I highly recommend seeing them if you haven't, because it's a great show.

Pelican on MySpace
Suicide Note on MySpace
Head of Skulls on MySpace