Yeah, the show was good but the PA in the venue was terrible, and Pelican only got to do a half-assed soundcheck between sets so that made it even worse. Pelican has really changed their sound a lot, they're a little heavier and with more straight-ahead grooves instead of the complex compositions. Their drummer still sucks either way. Both guitarists are using (I think, I was up on the balcony) JCM800s cranked way up now so it's really hard to separate the guitars. It sounds cool on record (they have a new EP out on Southern Lord which is really good) but live it's just mush with a bad mix.
I used to be a huge Isis fan but I'm not that crazy about the new record. The compositions aren't as well-thought-out as they used to be (it's just "riff A/riff B/riff C/riff D" repeat for eight minutes until you get up to like riff M), the guitar tones are pretty lame and way over-effected, and I don't know who keeps telling Aaron Turner he's a good clean singer and he should do it more. He and Mike are both playing Fryette UL100s now and the tones were GREAT, much better than the record, at least for the first half of the first song until the shitty mix and PA took over. On the way home we drove past the only Canadian distributor for Fryette, in Cobourg, and the only reason we didn't stop was because I'd checked online and they only had a Sig-X in stock... I so want to try a UL100 now...
less said about the opener the better.