>>PREVIEW
PELICAN
Wednesday, October 4
The Warehouse
Chicago metal act Pelican doesn’t need shortcuts like "lyrics" and "singing."
In most rock music, the singer is the focal point. Even when they’re surrounded by the alien squelches of a thrift-shop synthesizer or the bass-heavy boom of an acid-drenched funk combo, the vocalist gives listeners something to grasp on to, a human element in the midst of the madness.
So, why is it that the best instrumental rock can carry an emotional weight that’s almost impossible to find when the singer’s around? Just look at the descriptors that get thrown around – acts like Mogwai and Godspeed You! Black Emperor are "cathartic," Explosions in the Sky are "epic." And Chicago’s Pelican are "fucking triumphant," or so says their website biography.
Sounds a little arrogant, but that’s actually an incredibly apt description of a band that straddles the gap between post-rock’s atmospheric spaciousness and metal’s harder edge. Pelican’s sound has alienated a few die-hards in both genres, but it’s also earned the band a reputation as an intensely moving live act that can hold their own touring with everyone from black metal legends Opeth to post-rockers like Mono.
"There's something about the structure of a pop song that feels unnatural," explains Pelican guitarist Laurent Lebec. "You only have about three minutes to establish a melody, and so right away it has to be the melody that’ll be most memorable. There’s not really a lot of time to let the music grow on its own terms, and when you’re dealing with songs that are longer, or where you allow parts to stretch as long as it feels right, you get something that feels more organic and more like the human experience."
But not everyone is interested in the organic these days. With the masses clamouring for conciseness over catharsis, Lebec has no delusions that his band’s marathon riffing will ever attract the same audience a more conventional act might draw.
"There's a lot of things in our environment that feed the attention deficit disorder that most people seem to be plagued with more and more each day, myself included," Lebec admits. "You just think about how people are soaking up information now as compared to even 20 or 30 years ago, it’s just vastly different. People's attention spans are dramatically shorter. And so I think most people wouldn’t care to consider what a 10-minute song has to offer."
For those with the patience, Pelican is a force to be reckoned with. Their second full length, 2005’s The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw, is a call to arms for those who are unhappy with the world around them. These days that seems to be just about everyone. The band refuses to spell out their message to the crowd, though, forcing their audience to draw the lines without rehashed political lyrics or oversimplified stage banter to guide them. It’s a refreshing approach that leaves the focus on the music.
"I always end up having a lot of conversations at shows with people that I meet, and that’s the way I want to have it," says Lebec. "I want to have the conversation with the person and not on the stage. If people want to talk about things and let meeting someone evolve in a natural way, if you end up talking about things that matter to you beyond music, that’s great, but I just don’t want to do it on the stage." |
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