Isis, Pelican and Tombs at Irving Plaza, 6/2/09

Last night was full of doomy droney downtuned avant garde metal.  The show began at 9 with Relapse charmers, Tombs who played for a solid 30 minutes.  The crowd remained still has they blasted out slow heavy chords.  This band is definitely driven by their drummer, which isn't a bad thing.  They took the crown for heaviest band of the night.

Up next was Pelican.  They began the set around 9:45 and played for an hour on the dot.  The Chicago instrumental 4-piece proved to be two things- sludgey and melodic.  They covered an Earth song, which was almost too fitting.  Imagine a band like Pelican that is so set on not playing hooks cover a Ramones song?  Now that would be interesting.  But what can I say, they were dead on and their lighter and more melodic sound worked well after Tombs heaviness.  Still after an hour of drone and sludge it did get a tiresome and the crowd grew a bit restless.

There was another 15 minute break or so before Isis hit the stage.  Don't get me wrong, Tombs and Pelican can certainly play (and I particularly love Tombs), but it was a breath of fresh air to see Isis hit the stage simply for the fact that they had a vocalist.  It was nice to be able to focus in on a frontman during the set and have a voice to sing (or moan) along to.  The boys played for about an hour and a half with a bonus 15 minute encore.  For the first time in the evening the moshing didn't seem completely silly as Isis picked up the tempo a few knotches.  

To sum up, all the bands sounded tight but this may not have been the best night for me to chose not to drink.