Pelican are one of my favorite bands. A few years ago I never, ever would have thought I’d be able to say that about an instrumental band. So don’t let the fact that they are vocal-less scare you off. They write songs that are beautiful, haunting, heavy, mellow…gorgeous.

I saw them once a couple years ago and was blown away by their live show. Since then, they’ve come through town a few times, and I’ve always missed them for one reason or another. And it especially weighed on me, since they were always offering to put me on the guest list with a photo pass! When I found out they were doing two shows near me, one in Anaheim and one in LA, and I was again offered a guest pass, I decided to take a couple days off work so I could swing both shows.

It was awesome.

Of the two shows, the LA one was better. The Anaheim show was at a small all ages club, Chain Reaction, that I’ve been wanting to check out—and it was a cool little place. I wasn’t sure how big of a crowd the show would draw, since it was a school night, but it was pretty packed. It was a good show.

But the LA show, at the Knitting Factory, was a lot better. It had better sound. A more enthused audience. A really great vibe all around.

I only caught one of the opening bands at both shows—Daughters. I’d descrbe them as a noise band. I usually love noise bands, but for some reason they weren’t quite cutting it for me. I kept thinking maybe I should pick up a cd, because well, I usually love noise bands, and I figured I might like them better if I gave them some time to grow on me. But I didn’t. The singer was having fun with some crazy stage antics, which included spitting beer all over the place, jumping down into the audience, and (in L.A.) pulling his pants (and underwear) down for (what seemed like) long stretches of time. Can you guess which two of those antics made me glad I wasn’t standing right up against the stage?

Daughters at Chain Reaction, Anaheim

Pelican aren’t anything like Daughters (but it’s always fun to have very different bands on the same bill). I guess they’re what you’d call post-rock (at least that’s what Mike D, who I hung out with at the show, called them). If you look them up on allmusic.com, their “moods” are listed as brooding, gloomy, angst-ridden, druggy, atmospheric, and pastoral. Their newer stuff leans more towards the atmospheric/pastoral end. But all their songs build to wonderful crescendos.

Pelican at Chain Reaction, Anaheim

Pelican at Knitting Factory, Los Angeles

One guitarist thrashes around on stage, the other is a little more mellow.

For some songs, the hyper guy slows down and pulls out a violin (cello?) bow and uses it on his guitar.

They played a lot of new material, and it all sounds excellent. The crowd was really into it, and like me, would have been happy to have them play for hours. At one point someone called out a request for “White Wedding,” which they had to decline. Then came all the calls for “Freebird!”

Here’s a videoclip I took of one of their new (unreleased) songs, the audio is not syncing up right with the video, though (something screwy w/youtube):

These are really talented guys, and I expect their audience will only get bigger as time goes on. Now is a good time to catch them! Tour dates are listed on their myspace page. Be sure to check out our previous Band Spotlight on them as well, if you haven’t already.

Special thanks to Mike D for coming to the show, it’s always funner when you have a buddy to enjoy a concert with.

Oh, and additional photos/videoclips can be found here.