LIVE REVIEW: PELICAN, BLACK COBRA, AND SWEET COBRA @ MARQUIS THEATER, DENVER, CO 10/21/09

by Andrew Wilhelm (Denver)

Pelican
When: Tuesday, October 22, 2009
Where: Marquis Theater, Denver, CO
With: Black Cobra, Sweet Cobra

Animalistic. That's perhaps the best word for Tuesday night's bill of Pelican, Black Cobra, and Sweet Cobra at the Marquis Theater in Denver. Metal shows are quite zoo-esque anyway: crazed animals out for blood in captivity. The fact that there were two bands with "Cobra" in their name was even more ridiculous. As such in the animal kingdom, however, not all animals are created equal.


Looking at their name, Sweet Cobra would be appropriate for a young band looking to relive 80s pop-metal. In reality, the Chicago quartet (though they performed as a trio for this show, guitarist Matthew Allen Arluck was MIA) are yet another band who definitely sound metal, but seem to have came to heavy music from noise rock and Murder City Devils rather than traditional forms of extreme metal. Bassist Botchy Vaquez's vocals were as burly as his low end, and guitarist Robert Lanham Jr. provided plenty of angular, sometimes quasi-psychedelic guitar parts. The vocals could have been mixed a little higher, and the fact that Sweet Cobra were the first band of the night didn't help reception-wise. Nevertheless, I can't hate on a band that gives it their all, and Sweet Cobra certainly did.

Now, a confession: I've intentionally skipped out on Black Cobra. Twice. The first time, they opened for Slough Feg, whose twin guitar attack mesmerized me so much I thought Black Cobra couldn't live up. Then they played at SXSW, but their set conflicted with Absu's. If you're thinking, "Andrew Wilhelm, you are an ignorant fuck," you are exactly right and I have repented for my sins. I've never heard a band with such huge tone, especially when the lone guitarist, Jason Landrian, makes up half of the band! When Landrian wasn't singing, he was flailing around on stage, clearly enjoying himself. I've always gotten a slight Fu Manchu, surfer-ish vibe from the duo's ultra-heavy form of stoner metal anyway, so the stage movements seemed appropriate. Black Cobra packed the venom Sweet Cobra was somewhat lacking.

Having seen Pelican five times now (tied with Slayer!), there is something new every time I see them. Sadly, this time, it was the presence of a mosh pit. The pit didn't erupt until the third song, "Dead Between the Walls," and when it came I don't think anyone was expecting it. In high school, I heard stories about meatheads moshing to A Perfect Circle's "3 Libras," and moshing to Pelican seems equally baffling. Pelican have loads of intricacies in their sound, which makes pit dancing to them quite counter-intuitive.

The stupidity of a few audience members aside, the band came off as more enthusiastic and confident in their performance than ever before. Pelican mostly performed songs of off their forthcoming record, What We All Come To Need. Despite guitarist Trevor de Brauw complaining about the altitude in Denver, they were far from sluggish. They just looked really...delighted to be onstage, a far cry from the stiffness of some post-rock influenced bands. As cliche as it is at metal shows, the more familiar songs off the setlist got the crowd more worked up. Longtime staple "Drought" didn't make the cut, but two standouts were "GW" and "Sirius," the latter preceding a rather awkward encore. Drummer Larry Herwig bolted before the rest of the band, confusing the audience into thinking the altitude finally overcame him. Pelican proved this wrong by closing with "City of Echoes," bolstered by an extended breakdown where Larry and his brother, bassist Bryan, jammed after de Brauw and Laurent Schroeder-Lebec hung their guitars up.

An excellent show altogether, and I'll leave you with this thought: wouldn't "Angel Tears" totally fit on a My Dying Bride album?