Pelican rules! This show is guaranteed to be chock full of instrumental mayhem that will make your spine tingle, your eyes tear, and your ears say, "why?!?" Go see them.

Wordless, forceful and intensely melodic, think of these Chicagoans as an angrier Mogwai, or Explosions in the Sky on Andro.

Pelican play repetitious, almost trance-like, guitar riffs that steadily build into a euphoric atmosphere of hardcore noise with subtle, yet crucial, traces of honest-to-god beautiful guitar lines floating effortlessly over the top of the metal bedlam. I guess Pelican is what happens when emo kids grow up and finally realize that no one cares what's in their diary.

Pelican also wards off the instrumental band's curse of monotony. The main thing they've got going for them is that they're interesting. Any band can make your ears bleed once. But these guys have a careful craftsmanship to song structure that keeps you returning, like a co-dependent lover, for more and more wonderfully painful pleasure. Yes, Pelican are an extremely loud band, but there's a lot more behind their songs than just decibel destruction.

Be sure to check out my favorite album of 2005, The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw, as well as their latest, City of Echoes.

Pelican play the Troubadour, on Friday, August 10th.